Recycled paper mixed with additives to strengthen it, used to create decorative objects
I’ve been waiting for the weather to be warm and dry to seal my papier maché clay bowls and put them in the ChirpHop Studio Etsy shop. It’s been either warm or dry, but not both.
In the meantime, the notion of changing the color of the clay got into my head. If it was built into the bowl material, rather than applied to the surface, I could save some steps. Applying paint also sometimes has a “fake” look, almost like the bowl is made of molded plastic.
When you work with papier maché clay, it can take awhile to get a feel for how thick you’re spreading the mixture over the mold. Too thin and it’s fragile, most likely with weak areas and pinholes. Too thick and you lose some of the delicacy of it.
A thickness of about 1/8″ (.125 cm) is sturdy yet not clunky. The photo above was taken before patching, when the sides were a bit too thin and there were pinholes in the bottom from flattening the base.
No wonder there are issues… it’s like spreading really wet tuna salad! Thankfully there’s an easy fix.
Cast paper can be pretty lumpy, depending on the type of paper you use and how well you “puree” it. The papier maché clay recipe I altered for my bowls makes a smooth, sandable, easy to apply patch material to fill in the ruts.
I recently used it on a couple of different bowls – one made from cast paper and one made from the same maché clay.
The bowl in the photo above has been around for awhile. I love the finish on the other side, but the craters on the outside didn’t seem to “go” with it.
I sanded and sanded with a multi-function tool and only got so far. The results weren’t very satisfying after a lot of work.
Enter maché clay…
Since there are some substantial changes from the recipe on ultimatepapermache.com in the paper prep, mixing and molding the form with the new papier maché clay mixture, I put the entire process here. It includes my recipe from an earlier post, so you won’t need to jump all over to follow it.
Cast paper bowls are fun to make and I’m a self-confessed container and paper lover. I’ve been making them for a few years, but was sometimes disappointed in the strength of the finished product, especially with larger bowls.
Then one day, I came across ultimatepapermache.com, which has a wealth of wonderful information. Jonni Good offers recipes, clear, helpful videos and the site has an active forum full of even more ideas. It’s obvious that she’s always coming up with ways to improve her techniques.
For my purposes, the recipe needed some tweaking, but it transformed how I make my bowls (and how satisfied I am with them).