With apologies to Eleanor Roosevelt
Because I’m me, I wound up trying to jump back into paper mache with a huge project, and now it’s been two and half months since the rabbit got his ears. He’s still sitting on top of my bookshelf, faceless and unfinished. That can’t stand either, but the first task should be getting my work space in order. It’s a madhouse in this apartment. There’s no room to do much of anything.
Unless that thing is scribbling doodles in a blank notebook. Which happened this week: I started thinking about New Year’s resolutions, and then I got all excited about changing my life, and then I couldn’t sleep, even though it was right before my bedtime. (This is inevitably when the ideas come.) I want to try a series of very simple shapes — little house forms or boxes, most likely — and mix it up with some found objects and collage. I promise it’ll make more sense when I have examples. Or better sketches. First, however, I need to trade in the unfun mess, which has to go away before the fun one can really start. Thank goodness for a long weekend.
Happy 2010, everybody!
Adventures in vlogging (is that still a word?)
Okay, this is an experiment. I decided to give video a try, and this is my first time with this, so your mileage may vary. A friend who I screened this for giggled a lot and very fondly told me I was a huge, adorable dork, so my hope is that you’ll be similarly kind.
I was hesitant to put this up before finding out whether attaching the rabbit’s ears at this stage was a good idea or not, but what the hey, we’ll find out soon enough.
The versatility tango
When I was little, I always went right for the jugular. I didn’t want to waste my time with vases or picture frames or jewelry boxes — I wanted to make coat-hanger snakes and flying pigs and enough monsters to fill my parents’ house! And there are some ways in which bigger is easier for beginners. Subtle curves or little edges require a lot of patience and a lot of experimentation as you figure out what size strips (1 cm or less? yeah, I’ve done it) will preserve the shape you want without the final piece winding up full of wrinkles and loose edges.
Another great thing about big projects is that you can really go crazy with decorations and mixed media. You’ve just made yourself an awesome canvas — so use it!
I love the expression on this guy’s face. There’s something just truly turtley that’s been captured here.
Day of the Dead will always, always produce totally fantastic pieces. You can’t lose with this holiday.
God, I admit it. I am kind of a sucker for somewhat silly folk art.
Simplicity of form can lead to really interesting and exciting final projects. I imagine you’re all a bit sick of my nondescript, earless rabbit by now: wait until you see how he comes out once he’s painted. Paint, of course, isn’t the only way to play with what you’ve created. This is sculpture, after all!
I am beyond enthralled with the moon hanging on a wire here, not to mention totally charmed by the design. The whole shop is well worth a visit!
Delicate is also more than doable with paper mache, though. I am less practiced with these forms, but I’d love to give them a try. My guess is that both of these were made with pulp, but I do know you can make little clay forms, paper mache around them, then cut them in half to scoop the clay out and seal up the bead.
Have you found any paper mache on Etsy that blows you away? Leave a link! I’d love to see it. Happy hunting!
I promise this isn’t like the Home Shopping Channel
Case in point: the rabbit now has forelegs. Which is a great thing! I had a great time figuring out where to place them and how to secure them (old screws from an Ikea bed I no longer own, plus the usual metric ton of masking tape). But there are some drawbacks. This takes some time, and while patience is not one of my better or more constant virtues, I don’t trust myself not to start a fire by drying the piece in the oven. This is the first of the desires I’m grappling with at the moment: I’ve done some preliminary layers and I just want to barrel on ahead. (Did you know paper mache was so fraught with drama? You do now!)
I’ve got a good amount of paste left, and I’m still kind of in the zone, to totally sound like an SNL parody now. What I’d love to do is have another project I can start in on, just so I can have something else to do while the rabbit dries. I really am trying to be measured, though: if I’m not careful, I’ll have half a dozen unfinished forms cluttering up the floor in front of my kitchenette, and I do kind of need that space to exit my apartment.
So, here’s my rule: if I’m not finished with one project, I don’t start on another — not yet, anyway, as I don’t particularly have anything I desperately need to make at the moment. This brings up a rather important point, though — a piece is done when it’s decorated. Great! Decorating is fun. (Except when it’s daunting: I couldn’t begin to explain why this tiny jewelry box is giving me such a block, although the day I choose between the portrait of Napoleon and the peacock for the centerpiece will be a good one.) One good thing to know is when to start decorating.
What is the right time for moving beyond paste and paper? That depends on the project. Generally something with flat surfaces — your jewelry boxes, pencil holders, picture frames and pyramids — requires fewer layers than anything that has curves and bumps. Any project isn’t ready for decorating if it feels damp or cool to the touch in any way. You shouldn’t be able to bend or indent any part of it without effort. My rule of thumb is that if I can forget that it’s made of corrugated cardboard or a plastic bag stuffed with ad inserts, it’s probably ready for some dolling up.
Sand your surfaces to even out the bubbles and blobs and get cracking however you best see fit. Maybe start sketching out some ideas for the next messy piece of glory you’re ready to build. Contemplate how much you love this part of the process while you read My hot glue gun by Shaina Feinberg.
But only after everything — and I mean everything — is dry.
I will not start new projects before current ones are finished…
While I did do an obscene amount of paper mache as a kid, I usually didn’t deviate too much from the strips-of-paper method. One of the other ways you can build sculpture with paper is by making it into a sort of clay. Ultimate Paper Mache has, among other wonderful things, a great tutorial that I’m just itching to try. (Which isn’t entirely fair, as my rabbit is still waiting for his front legs and his ears, and let’s not even start on solving the problem of decorating that jewelry box. Those are for another post and another time. I don’t have the floor space to be that immoderate.)
There may be a reason Epimetheus chose clay
The way around this (and I really wish I’d taken pictures, but I appear to have been too pleased with myself to have thought that far) is chopsticks. You may have dozens of them hanging out in a drawer from take-out meals, in the vain hope (if you’re me) that someday you’ll master eating with them. These suckers are, craft-wise, worth their weight in gold. I took a very lightweight stick, cut it in half, coated each end with glue and poked it through the rabbit’s paw and its leg. As there’s no such thing as too much masking tape, I then secured it further, filling in any gaps with small crumpled pieces of newspaper.
The top had already gotten a few layers, and the head was pretty much where I wanted it to be, thanks to drying it propped up against a soda bottle. With the legs attached, I was able to (ahem) attack the bottom. The rabbit bravely endured a somewhat undignified position for the sake of shoring up its lower half, and I was able to add some layers everywhere but the tip of the muzzle and the fronts of the paws. I’m quite sure no one overthinks quite like this, but to me it became kind of a fun exercise in spatial problem-solving. Your instinct is to approach the project as it will be when it’s finished, upright. But unlike clay, you have the ability to upend your piece, lean it against things, leave it out in odd positions and tackle it from a variety of angles without worrying too much if it’ll get deformed in the process.
Two more notes before I sign off: first, notice how rough the layers are in the beginning. The rabbit’s head is covered with lumps and bubbles and and exposed ends and pieces of paper that aren’t lying flat. Don’t sweat it. This takes care of itself as the piece progresses. The more layers you add, the more uniform it will become. Be sure, though, that you’re smoothing out each strip as you lay it down. When it doubt, slather on a little more paste.
The second note involves clean-up. Plastic bags are your friend. I almost didn’t post these pictures, because the bags I used were clear and I didn’t want it to look like I was encouraging just messing around on your floor. Here’s why:
Make it easy on yourself. For now, I’m pausing just long enough to update and then start on my jewelry box while the rabbit dries. Happy crafting!
Not to blow my gasket all at once, but…
Never look on Etsy ever. Just don’t. Not only will you be sorely tempted to buy up all sorts of amazing handmade art and crafts, you’ll be totally gobsmacked in general by how wonderful, creative and varied people out there are.
These are just a few of the incredible finds I made with one swipe through a “paper mache art” search.
Check out that amazing paint detail — not to mention the snazzy bow accents. I love the color and the negative space.
Talk about putting your new spin on “bird watching.”
Simple concept, but so visually interesting!
This whole series is just so sweet. I love how the artist makes use of the newsprint as visual texture.
I think this kind of sums up everything that’s fun about paper mache.
You should also check out the Venetian masks, Dirty Birds and all this gorgeous American folk art. Curse you, Etsy, and darn you to Heck!
Hello world!

I promise someday soon this will be a creature.
I think endless hours of paper mache as a kid also taught me that if I didn’t see what I liked in the world, I could go and make it myself. That’s what this blog is for — a place to talk about paper mache and paper mache only, not as a highlighted craft of the day but as a topic all in itself. I’m excited! I haven’t done much with tangible art in what feels like a very long time: I write and dabble in photography, but I recently rediscovered how wonderful just working with my hands is.
I also hope to show the world how easy and fun it is to make something really cool with material that’s just lying around, with the added benefit of allowing yourself to get really, gloriously, paint-in-your-hair messy. It’s cheap, it’s environmentally conscious, it’s personalized and it’s a great conversation-starter. But enough of my speech-making: I hope you all enjoy yourselves, and I’m really looking forward to rocking paper! (Scissors can come too. Rimshot!) Please feel free to say hello, and also please tell your friends — this may be the first entry, but I’ve put up some how-to’s, decorating ideas and tips, so poke around and let me know what you think!