papier mache

[Andy Hamilton]

Just made a papier mache egg cup. Has any had much experience in making stuff from papier mache? I ask as I am working from a vague memory from my school days, do you have to leave it to dry in the sun or in a cupboard or anything?

[Muddypause]

Never done anything since school days, when I made a mask using a balloon as a mould.

I suspect there is some science to it - think of fibreglass, or even carbon fibre. These are flexible, fibrous materials bonded with a resin that on its own has little torsional strength, not so very different from paper in glue. Done properly, the result is stronger than the sum of the parts.

With paper, much probably depends upon the type of glue you use, but I seem to recall that there was a lot of papier mâché furniture made by the Victorians. Cleverly finished and painted, it looked just like carved wood, and was strong enough to make armchairs and things out of.

Bound to be some web resource, I'd have thought.

[Andy Hamilton]

Yep, since looked it up and found this site

http://www.papiermache.co.uk/exec/cms-d ... 23/page-2/

pretty usefull.

I had never heard of the victorians making furniture out of papier mache I wonder if anyone still does.

I think my first attempt of papier machie making is not going to work too well as I forgot to use any glue

There was a thing on that site that suggested making a clay like substance and using that. You soak the paper overnight (which I am doing at the moment) then Drain, and then boil in some clean water for half an hour, which breaks up the fibres.

Next you have to sive the pulp. then Beat or whisk the pulp to break up the fibres even more. Then add some glue to make it into the clay. Going to exeriment over the weekend with this stuff. I have a copy of the metro (national free daily paper) in some water and will get to work on it in the morning.

[Andy Hamilton]

Well the egg cup is still drying but it looks like it is falling apart a bit, ah well thats what happens when you don't use glue. I made some clay today and have just made a bowl out of it. I made my own glue this time to add to it (Flour & Water glue). It is dryign out at the moment so fingers crossed it will all wrok out ok.

[shiney]

Hi Andy,

You can make some great 'creations' with egg boxes soaked until mushy and add pva. (I know some people don't like using it, but I do!) Mold the mushy egg boxes over a nice bowl or shape that takes yer fancy. Don't forget to put some vaseline or similar over the item you are covering so that it comes unstuck.

I have a friend who repaired their Lloyd Loom chair with papier mache. Just used newspaper. It looks fab! And it's surprisingly strong. It was finished with varnish which gave the paper an 'old look'.

Did you ever make the paper mache piggy bank when you were at school? It's still one of my favourite memories.

[Andy Hamilton]

I am afriad that our gerbil gets all the egg boxes.

I think I shall buy some PVA glue and experiment with that too. But it was nice to make my own glue.

Might have a go at making furniture, but will stick to smaller things for now untill I am happy with what I am making.

I think I made an airship or something at school when we did the whole papier mache thing. One of my favorite memories was making a bridge out of cardboard they were all entered in a competion and we came 1st. Well I think we won it was a while back now.

[shiney]

Does the gerbil lay eggs or just has a papier mache factory of it's own going?

Forgot to say...water the pva down 50/50 makes it go further. Get some from Wilkos or a kids shop, it's cheaper, Woolies or such like.

You could just cover a piece of old furniture that needs a little love, like an old chair, with the seat gone or going! Probably find one in a skip if you are lucky. Or Free to Collector in Trade It.

Are you always tempted to take a sneaky look in skips? My mother is the WORST for it...but found six nice chairs and a pair of silver candlesticks in one once.

[Andy Hamilton]

The gerbil chews anything that you put in front of him!

I always look in skips bits of carpet for weed retardents is the most I have ever come up with. When I lived in Northampton people would leave old furniture outside their houses for whoever would take it.

Got an armchair once and when we had an open fire place we also had a ready supply of fuel.

This flat is too small for much more furniture but when we move I think that I shall be making a few more things. I can hear my girlfriend already shaking her head and worring that the house will be covered in bits of sodden newspaper

[shiney]

We used to have Gerbs once. God, they were noisy little critters at night. Rattle, rattle, rattle! Great fun tho.

A good way of finding free furniture is to find out when your local council does large item collections. (I know this from working briefly for a refuse company) Then you can go cruising early in the morning for something useful and not too large! People are so wasteful with stuff, some of the things that came back to the yard could have been used for people who had just been housed and needed some starter furniture, white goods etc.

I used to get phone calls from people to say that the items they had put out (and paid for the bulky collection) had gone overnight and could they have their money back?

[judyofthewoods]

I used to make p m jewellery commercially, and made some larger show items. I mostly used the pulp method, and for a few items (vases - not for holding water, just show) I used paper strips. I got shredded office paper from banks, insurance people etc. (early 90's - they may be more cautious now, even if the paper is shredded), which made the best, strongest pulp. Cheap paper, like news paper has a fairly short staple, and also still has some of the impurities left in which will rot the paper more qhickly (you know how very old paperback novel and newspapers crumble apart?). I only soaked it briefly and then put small ammounts at a time into a food blender (no boiling at any stage). Then I drained the pulp in an old nylon stocking, very lightly queesing excess water out, but leaving it somewhat soft, not too sloppy. You will have to experiment and get the feel. Then I dubbed it onto or into a mold (no fat to release if you want to paint it), about 2-3 times thicker than I wanted the finished thickness. Then I dabbed the surface with a thin sponge/j-cloth type cloth with light pressure. This absorbed more moisture and consolidated the pulp. I had a load of those cloths, leaving some to dry as I used others. You then want to dry it as fast as you can to prevent mold or slime. Sunny windowscil, near the stove, etc. I did not use glue in the pulp (made it more difficult to use, actually. Onece the item was totally dry I would size it with glue then, and used bone/skin glue. It will soak into the paper. Then I covered it with gesso (chalk/glue mix) and textured it and painted it to look like tarnished bronze with water colours, then varnished it with shellac varnish and added some gold paint highlights. For larger items which needed some strength I used a chickenwire armature. Made a stool once (which ended up looking a bit too much like a flush toilet ) and a friend of mine who weighed about 16 stone sat on it, lifted his feet, and it did not brake. If you are making things to last, it is best to use good quality paper, and if its likely to get wet, use waterproof glue. But its not really suited to items that get wet. You can also soak with linseed oil for a somewhat waterproof item, though not tried it personally.
By the way, around the Victorian era someone reputedly made prefab buildings out of papier mache (I think they were oil soaked) to ship out to Oz or some remote collony.

[Wombat]

I haven't seen any papier mache buildings around here recently

Nev

[Muddypause]

I haven't seen any papier mache buildings around here recently

But that shouldn't stop a man of your abilities having a go http://oikos.com/library/papercrete/

[Wombat]

Wow, Stew, thats pretty impressive stuff - papercrete!

Nev

[Andy Hamilton]

Thanks for the very deatiled advice judy, will come in most useful. My girlfriend brings back loads of printed paper from her work which I can use. It is good quality stuff that is only printed on one side.

Wow building houses with it! Maybe I could build my self a balcony on my flat to grow some more plants. seariously though I wonder it I could build a big box for my tools.

[wulf]

Papercrete sounds like a fascinating idea - hopefully I'll remember the idea when I have an opportunity to try it!

At the moment though, I'm more interested in gabions... I think I'll start another thread about that!

Wulf