Tag Archives: paper mache

How to Make Awesome Cardboard Paper Mache Anything

Posted on by
Awesome Paper Mache Hats

Awesome Paper Mache Hats

A few weeks ago a friend of mine had a “bad movie night” where he was showing the film1 “Sharknado.”  Inspired by the theme for the party, I decided I had to wear a shark hat for the event.  After making my hat, my daughter requested a monkey hat.  This was not a request I could refuse.

I took pictures of the process to show you how you can make your own.  I haven’t ever tried to make paper mache hats before, so this was not only a lot of fun – but a great learning experience.  While I own the really great paper mache monster books by Dan Reeder, I only used them for inspiration and tried out a few new things on my own.

Even though I used this process to make hats, the directions here could easily be adapted to making anything out of paper mache.

1. Step 1: Gather Materials and Tools

All the things you need to make your own awesome paper mache anything

All the things you need to make your own awesome paper mache anything

Here’s what you need to get started:

  1. Cardboard Boxes.  Cardboard forms the “skeleton” of the structure.  It’s cheap, ubiquitous, sturdy, and easy to cut and form.
  2. Masking Tape.  Once the cardboard has been cut, liberal use of masking tape will keep your creation together until it can be covered with paper mache.
  3. Scissors and Utility Knife.  Scissors can be very helpful in cutting cardboard or paper.  While scissors can be helpful, and appropriate for kids, I find a utility knife gets the job done faster.
  4. Measuring Tape.  If you’re not making a hat (or other apparel or armor) you won’t need this.  But it is helpful when making measurements.  ((In a pinch, you could just use a piece of yarn or string to mark lengths, and then put the yarn on the cardboard for reference.))
  5. Plastic Wrap.  Whether you’re working with gluey paper or paint, the process is messy.  I would recommend covering the work surface with plastic wrap.  I happened to have a really large plastic bag, which I taped directly to the table.
  6. Glue.  I just used a big bottle of Elmer’s white glue from the hardware store, but I’m pretty sure wood glue would have worked as well, if not better.  It’s also more versatile and sturdy.
  7. Plastic Tray.  The next time you get take-out or have a plastic liner from inside some packaging, save it.  It makes a great wide tray for mixing water and glue or when your project is dry, it is also great for mixing paints.
  8. Paper Grocery Bags.  The “twist” with this process is that I used torn up grocery bags, rather than the traditional newspaper.  It turned out this was a really good idea for a number of reasons.  Paper bags are a cheap and plentiful material.  When thoroughly wet strips of paper bags are easy to place, mold and shape. However, the most important features of paper bags is that they hold glue and water really well and then dry quickly into a sturdy hard shell.  In fact, they form such a sturdy surface that I only had to do a single layer of paper mache around the entire hat.  This means that you can quickly put down a single layer of paper bag strips all over your cardboard form, wait a few hours for it to dry, and then get to work finishing the project.
  9. Paper or Newspaper.  While grocery bags work really well to cover your cardboard form, they can leave some small gaps where they overlap.  When I found gaps in the project, I simply used a few thin strips of the newsprint style paper to cover the holes and smooth out spots on the rough paper bag layer.
  10. Cup of Water and Paintbrushes.  An old mug is best and pile of cheap dollar store brushes is probably fine.
  11. Paints.  I prefer acrylic paints.  They are cheap, can be diluted with water, easy to mix, they stay wet long enough for you to blend, but not so long that you have to wait days for it to dry.  They also clean up well with water.

2. Step 2: Create Cardboard Form

Process for creating awesome hat

Process for creating awesome hat

The process I used to create the cardboard forms for the hats was pretty quick and easy.  I measured the circumference of my daughter’s head and then the distance from her ears to the top of her head.  Using these measurements, I cut out a strip of cardboard as tall as the distance from her ears to the top of her head and as wide as the circumference of her head – with a little extra to allow for overlap.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In the pictures above you can see the strip of cardboard cut out and then taped into a cylinder with the masking tape.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Cut strips into the cardboard cylinder, fold them down, and add enough masking tape to mold it into a hat-shape.

3. Step 3: Add Embellishments

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A paper mache hat is way more interesting with some kind of embellishment, like ears, shark fins, wings, or whatever else.  Here I cut ear shapes out of cardboard, curved them slightly, taped them to hold the curve, and then taped them to the hat.  When I made the shark hat, I cut a long slit into the hat through the tape and inserted the shark fin through the underside of the hat.  Don’t be afraid to use a lot of tape.

4. Step 4: Prepare the Work Surface, Paper Strips, and Glue Mixture

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Cover the work surface with plastic sheeting.  I used a big plastic bag from a helium balloon order from my daughter’s birthday.  However, a big garbage bag or plastic wrap would also work well.  Paper bags from the grocery store work really well – but there are too thick in places.  Tear off the handles and pull the paper bag apart at the seams.  You’ll probably need to discard some of the sections where the the paper bag is too thick to use.

Add some glue (I used about a tablespoon) and warm water (about a half cup or so) to the plastic pan.  It should look like milk or heavy cream once you’ve mixed it up.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Completely soak the strips of paper bag in the glue mixture.  They should be completely soaked all the way through until they’re nearly translucent.  Unlike paper mache with thin pieces of newspaper, you won’t need to put layers and layers of paper on the form – just one layer where the pieces overlap a little should work fine.  The excess glue from the strips of paper will soak into the cardboard and help make the entire structure sturdy.

5. Step 5: Set Model to Dry, Patch Holes with Paper

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Since the cardboard helps soak up the water, the entire structure should dry relatively quickly.  I put the shark hat outside in the sun for a few hours and it was ready for painting.  Once the hat is dry (or dry enough), you’ll probably notice some holes and gaps from the paper bag strips.  Tear up some newsprint paper, soak those in the gluey mixture, and cover and smooth out any defects.  Once these pieces dry, the project will be ready to paint!

6. Step 6: Paint to Suit

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The great thing about acrylic paints is that they are so easy to work with.  They dry really quickly, so you can paint one side of the model, work on the other side, and then come back to the first side to add details.  In any case, just paint the project to suit and you’re done!

Each hat went together really quickly.  I put the cardboard form together in about 15 minutes, covered it with the gluey paper bag strips over maybe 30 minutes, let it dry for several hours, and then paint it over the course of maybe an hour.

If you make your own paper mache hat (or other sculpture), let me know in the comments!

  1. And I use the word “film” loosely here [↩]

Lessons In Printed Plastic Paper Mache Molds

Posted on by

My daughter and I have been working on a project to create paper mache fairies and fairy furniture.1

Photographic Background Stand, ready for shooting!

Photographic Background Stand, ready for shooting!

But first, I can’t help showing off this nifty 3D printable photographic background stand I designed.  Inspired by some other designs on Thingiverse, my first draft worked exactly as I was hoping it would.  Okay, back to the paper mache.

Printed fairy mold (about 2" long)

Printed fairy mold (about 2″ long)

I designed two tiny human-ish figures in OpenSCAD, subtracted them from a block, and sliced the block in half to create a two-piece mold for what we were hoping would be tiny paper mache fairies.  I was pretty sure the tiny figures wouldn’t come out well in the printed plastic mold and that the mold wouldn’t work well with the paper mache.  However, my daughter really wanted to try to make fairies of this size (about 2″ tall) – so we gave it a shot.

Cast paper mache fairies

Cast paper mache fairies

I squeezed the paper pulp so it wasn’t sopping wet, added a liberal amount of white glue, packed the printed mold with the mixture, and put a rubber band around it to keep it together.  I gave it a few days, then pulled the mold apart.  I wasn’t able to add much of the mixture into the upper half, so the reverse side didn’t seem to leave much of an impression.  Once it was dry, the dried paper mache stuck to the bottom half of the mold so well it tore in several places as I got it out.

In any case, here are the lessons I’ve learned:

  1. The fairy bodies are somewhat angular – which I think made them difficult to remove from the mold.  I would have made them more rounded in the first place, but there were already a lot of spheres and cylinders in the design which were causing some pretty long OpenSCAD render times.
  2. Larger molded objects would probably work better.
  3. The mold would probably release the cast object if I made the interior smoother – either with sanding or acetone.
  4. A release agent would probably help.  Maybe petroleum jelly on the inside, perhaps plastic wrap?
  5. I should have sanded the tops of the mold halves – so they would mesh better.  This might have allowed the paper mache to be pressed better into the top part of the mold.
  6. It may help to add something to the paper mache mixture to make it stronger.  My thought is pieces of frayed yarn or pieces of a cotton ball.  This may give it more strength and flexibility.
  7. It’s hard to tell if it would matter, but more glue might have helped.
  8. I think it would have helped to create the mold in multiple pieces – similar to this Chris K. Palmer early Thingiverse chocolate mold.
Default Series Title
  1. I’ll leave it to your imagination to decide who chose the subject matter [↩]

Tentative Shredded Paper Mache Results

Posted on by
This is, by far, the most interesting photograph that came up when I searched for "fairy furniture" on Flickr

This is, by far, the most interesting photograph that came up when I searched for “fairy furniture” on Flickr

This last weekend my daughter and I tried making some small objects using paper mache from shredded paper.1  Here’s what we did:

  1. Soaked 3 gallons of shredded paper in 1 gallon of water in a 5 gallon bucket for a week in a warm garage
  2. Each day I stirred the mixture a little – to see if the paper was absorbing the water and disintegrating
  3. We scooped the paper pulp out of the bucket, squeezed the water out, put the pulp into another bucket and added a liberal amount of glue – and then kneaded the glue into the pulp
  4. We then formed the gluey pulp into simple shapes – and left them to dry

After four days, the sculptures (a fairy sized bed, bathtub, table, two chairs, and a footstool)  are mostly dried.  They all have a grayish brown look with a rough texture – as if they were carved badly from hard rock.  It was difficult to mold the gluey paper pulp into shapes – and it didn’t want to keep complex forms.  Nonetheless, for their intended purpose – fairy sized furniture and fixtures – I think they look really nice.  Once they’re fully dry, we’ll sand and paint them with some acrylic paints (which will also help seal them up).

If they come out well or if there is enough interest, I’ll put together a tutorial on how to do this all yourself.  But, in case you’re interested already, the process is pretty simple and there’s not much more than what I’ve described above and in the prior post.

Default Series Title
  1. Photo courtesy of Esther Simpson [↩]

Shredded Paper Mache

Posted on by
Shredder Means Business

Shredder Means Business

A few days ago I realized that I might have an actual use for all of the shredded paper I’ve accumulated at home and at work.1 Basically, my thought is that I may be able to create a paper mache “clay” by soaking shredded paper in a bucket of water, draining it somewhat, mixing in some white glue (or flour), molding into some interesting form, and letting it dry into a hardened cardboard like form.

Today my daughter and I went out to the hardware store to pick up a bucket2 , masking tape, and a lot of glue.  We dumped about three gallons of shredded paper into the bucket, added about a gallon of water, and mixed it up.  I plan to let it sit out to let the paper disintegrate a little before we drain it and add some glue.

Just to see if it would work, we packed one of my daughter’s sand toys (a large fish mold) with some of the wet shredded paper and set it out to dry.  I have no idea if it will hold together since we didn’t wait for the paper to disintegrate and didn’t add any glue.  If it works, great.  If not, I figure we can just toss it in the bucket again and let it disintegrate for good.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in learning some really great paper mache techniques, I can’t recommend enough Dan Reeder‘s books on paper and cloth mache.  Here are the three Dan Reeder books I own:

Of the three, I think the second (Make Something Ugly) is probably the most comprehensive and interesting.  However, the techniques in the others are also really great.

Default Series Title
  1. Photo courtesy of Sha Sha Chu [↩]
  2. Pink!!!  Pink!!! [↩]