About me

Me and my favorite processed grain product

My name is Esther — hi! Those are my hands, knees and dirty jeans in the pictures. I’m returning to paper mache after a too-long absence. I’m 25 and live in Chicago, where I work for a public health nonprofit and study improv comedy. These are my Etsy favorites, because that’s just plain vital, and I also love to write. But as far as this blog’s concerned, that’s neither here nor there.

When I was 8, my sister, who was in art school, gave me a small paper mache fairy made out of what I’m guessing was once a box of oatmeal and some wire mesh. I was absolutely enthralled. Al Gore was vice president, and I had been on a huge environmentalism kick since I was 5 and discovered whales were in trouble. This combined art with recycling, and it was so inexpensive that even I, with my third-grade allowance, would have no trouble maintaining the hobby. I embarked on a spree that lasted, I kid you not, through the age of 12. Friends refused to come over to my house because all I wanted to do was make art projects and get covered with dried flour paste. Seriously, though, what wasn’t there to love? You could make anything, anything, if you could put it together with masking tape, and the sky was the limit when it came to decorations. Glitter? Collage? Mosaic? Acrylics? Fabric? Beads? Found objects? You got it!

I’ve done some looking, and while craft blogs will highlight paper mache every so often, I had a hard time finding accessible blogs for my set of interests — the young DIY set, I guess you could say, as opposed to parents or more serious artists. My hope is that people will, at the very least, vicariously enjoy the unmatched delights and odd sense of zen inherent in the medium, and maybe try their hand at it themselves. More art is good for the world! I love comments, and don’t be shy about emailing me if that’s more your speed. Thanks very much for reading and visiting, and I hope you enjoy yourself at Rocking Paper!

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