Before I get stuck into this week’s craft I just want to say a huge thank you to whipup for featuring my crazy little endeavour this week and to say hi to everyone who’s visited, commented and subscribed because of it.
Papier-mâché is a craft as old as paper making itself and has been used for decorative purposes as well as in toy- and mask-making for centuries.
I’ve had the book Home, Paper, Scissors by Patricia Zapata for a while but I haven’t had chance to try anything so I was keen to make something from it for this project. The bowls featured on the front cover grabbed my attention but in the spirit of trying not to spend too much money (or none in this case) I chose to take Patricia’s suggestion of using shredded office paper rather than beautiful brand new coloured paper.
This is probably the most therapeutic craft I’ve tried so far – I loved using my fingers to spread the glue around rather than a brush and as it’s water-based PVA it washes out easily. It was interesting picking out the different snippets of information from the shredded paper – there were splashes of colour among the office-white, and handwritten scribbles as well as printed type – and I recognised receipts from different shops and my husband’s foreign travels.
And here’s the finished bowl, full of my collection of vintage cotton reels. Such an easy, practical and effective project. Give it a try!