Papier Mache' project second set

Jo-Lo and I made 4 projects from the papier mache' pulp. These are the other two:

the moon, bright yellow with some starts on its face,
and ice cream!
The photo below does not do justice to the projects, but they sure brighten up the kitchen!


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Which DVD to buy?

Yesterday, Jo-Lo and I went to town to purchase some stuff and we decided to drop by the video store to see what they have on sale. I have been thinking of buying The Golden Compass actually because I thoroughly enjoyed the novel on which it was based on (the Northern Lights). But I did not find that. What I saw, however, were these nice surprises:

Battlestar Galactica - this is from the original series in the 80s. I remember this because of the scene where the kid's dog was running to him during an attack and the dog died because of debris falling over him. I was devastated too, until the dog was replaced by a robot pet. Wow. Hi-tech, and no need to clean up after him on walks!
This is a no-brainer; I am a huge Star Wars fan. I also watch The Family Guy, incidentally.
Flash! Aaaah! The song came screaming in my mind when I saw this. We watched this on TV.
A War of the Worlds Musical? Now that is something!
GI Joe the Movie! And knowing is half the battle!

I did not buy any of these, unfortunately. Still thinking if any of these are worth it. I have seen the GI Joe movie before on TV but did not finish it because it was exceptionally violent and uber-impossible! Still thinking... eeny meeny miney moe...

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Painting the papier mache'

The autumn-winter season isn't really helping out with our papier mache' project. We started this about a month ago, I think, and we used 100% pulp to mold our wall decors. It's solid pulp through and through, and so it will take more time to dry up than a model that was made with some rolled-up newspapers inside then plastered with paper strips. But I did not realize that it will take this long to dry up! The Winter season is very near, and Autumn made a grand announcement of it by turning most days gloomy and wet. And so our papier mache' models took a long time to dry up.

Anyways, what we did next is we took a strip of paper, pasted and folded and pasted and folded it a number of times til we were able to get a small, thick strip that we folded over itself one last time forming a loop, into which a piece of cord was inserted. We then pasted this strip at the back of the figure and pasted some more paper strips onto it to make it sturdy and then we set it aside to dry (which was quite quick).
I've bought some paint early on so we can proceed with the project. For the base, I bought some Student Acrylic at NZ$10.00 for one bottle. Arcylic is really good. In its pure, undiluted form, I only needed one coating to make the papier mache' all white. And it dried up quickly too!

But acrylic paint is quite expensive, considering that I will need multiple colors for these projects. So what I did instead was I bought the cheapest watercolour I can find (I think it's around NZ$3.50). You can see that below as Jo-Lo tries his hand at painting. I would like to see if we can get a nice result even if we only have the barest of stuff to work with. This is only for fun with my kid, after all and I am not prepared to buy expensive stuff for this. In fact, even the brushes were NZ$2.50 for a set.

In using watercolour, however, you would expect that the result will be less vibrant than using acylic. I found that out when my wife said the pizza was looking a bit anemic. So if you would like to use watercolour, I suggest two coats. The first coat will be done using a sweeping motion, trying to cover all areas with as little water as possible so you do not diffuse the colour that much. Let it dry, then for the second coating use a smudging motion so you get the most colour possible. This technique worked rather nicely.

I recommend purchasing the white acylic, though, for the base paint. Its vibrant white will make the colour you paint over it look much brighter.

Some sites recommend smoothing out the papier mache mould using the finest sand paper. But I like how our objects came out rather rough-looking, and when we painted on them, the rough surface made the paint unevenly distributed, giving the objects character. Here's the strawberry...

... and here's the pizza.
Both are now hanging on the kitchen wall, their bright red a cheery glow against the cream paint.

We still have a couple more projects to paint on (the moon and the ice cream) so these will be featured in a future post.

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Neverwhere

After having enjoyed Nobody Owen's Story in the Graveyard Book, I became interested in reading Neil Gaiman's other works. I picked up this book, entitled Neverwhere, without expecting it to be another breakthrough and at the same time expecting to be marvelled. The fact of the matter is, even though I have heard Neil Gaiman's name for quite a number of times in the past few years, I have never had the chance to read his works. It was only very recently, thanks to free access to books here in Wellington.

Neverwhere was a bizarre adventure in a world that exists with our world, and at times even intertwines with our reality, but only for fleeting moments that we take notice, and then we don't. Situated in London, or rather London Above and London Below, the main character becomes an unwilling resident in this other world, and tries to work his way towards regaining his former life and former world.
It was a very engaging read, and made the commute to and from work pass swiftly by. Wanting to learn more about this novel, I Googled for more information and learned that BBC actually came up with a TV series based on the book. And is this some stroke of luck or what... the Central Library also had a copy of this on DVD!

Unfortunately, the TV series was not as entertaining as the book itself. The characters were convincing enough and provided memorable performances (I still had not finished reading the book at that time and their faces changed those that I had imagined when I finished up the book), but the sets looked like... well, sets... and were not as majestic / realistic as I imagined it to be.

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Papier Mache' project

The term "Papier mache'" usually conjures memories of days spent in school making crafts. I remember my first venture which this art form when I was a kid when I made a small vase. In high school, we also engaged on something similar to papier mache but instead of paper as the medium, we used sawdust instead which lumber shops gave to us for free; all you have to do is ask and they would let you haul as much sawdust as you can off their production floor.

For this project, Jo-Lo and I decided to create some simple objects that we can hang above the kitchen window. There are three nails sticking out there where photo frames or bric-a-brac may have adorned the walls previously. We want something colorful and related to food. And so we settled on strawberry, ice cream, pizza, and a moon. Ummm... the last one was an afterthought actually, and we had enough pulp for four objects and so four it was.
For this project, we decided to use pulp exclusively. The ingredients are very basic: water and paper. Tear the paper into strips and submerge it into the water. There's really no guideline to having the strips, but small strips will enable the paper to soak up the water and break down more easily. Perhaps half-inch strips, 6-8 inches long will do nicely. Leave overnight.

On the following day, manually tear up the paper, which should be easy since the water has weakened the strips. However, some people would recommend using a blender and straining, and that is fine too. Ours is just a simple project so we're not picky about the pulp quality.
Drain off and squeeze as much water as you can off the pulp. Next, add the paste in increments as you mix it into the paper (see previous post in making paste). Keep adding and mixing until you get a consistency similar to clay, or something which you can already mold into something and at the same time the paste has been distributed all over the pulp.

Treating this pulp as modeling clay material, proceed to shape the pulp into something you want. You can see from the photo below our "sculpted" works of art.

Next step is to let it out to dry. This is where we have encountered a bit of a problem. With winter approaching, the sun and the weather is not as cooperative. But it's a good thing we only have time for this during the weekends and so it has a week to dry off! A simpler, faster way to go about having the shape you desire and not have 100% pulp which will take long to dry is to crumple up paper and shape it using tape or string, then cover it all up with pulp. But for now, we have to content ourselves with waiting for our projects to become dry.

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How to make a bird feeder

Since we have a nice, little front lawn with a nice, little pohutukawa tree at the side, I thought it would be wonderful to have some feathery friends visit us occasionally! And so I researched on how to make a bird feeder to attract them to our place. I was thinking this project will have me working on a boxed container that dispensed seeds, but I was pleasantly surprised that there is an even easier and fun way to do this: with the use of pine cones!

Here is what you need to make a really simple bird feeder:
pine cones
papier mache paste
string
bird seeds (I also used some leftover muesli in one pine cone) - get this from your local pet shop or gardening store
The pine cones here are quite huge! Here is Jo-Lo showing them off. Behind him is the pohutukawa tree which will house the bird feeders.
Some sites and magazines I read actually suggests using peanut butter or used cooking oil to adhere the seeds to the pine cone. Well, I like my peanut butter and I'm not about to use it as adhesive for this project (besides, peanut butter is expensive), while used cooking oil seems to be rather inappropriate for the birds. So why not use papier mache' paste? It's made from flour and so it's edible!

Tie the string at the top end of the pine cone, leaving a length of string hanging to tie around the branch it with.

Spread some newspapers on the floor to catch excess paste and seeds.
Pour the paste into the cone, making sure that the crevices are covered with it.
Next, sprinkle the seeds over the pine cones. You can also have a wide bowl to catch the seeds that didn't quite make it to the cone and sprinkle these back on. Stick the seeds into the nooks and crannies. The messier the job, the more fun it is! Right, Jo-Lo?
We let the pine cones stay under the sun for an hour or so to make the paste set.
And then, we tied up the pine cones onto the tree branches! Make sure it's not within reach of the neighborhood prowling cat.
My wife told me that there were birds visiting the tree the past couple of days. This is a great way to provide food for the wild birds at a time when food will be hard to come by in the winter season.

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How to make papier mache' paste

After our gardening adventure and at the onset of winter, My son and I busied ourselves for another project: papier mache'

I've had some experience with this paper craft when I was a kid, mostly because it was a school project. In high school, we also made something similar but instead of paper, we used sawdust. For papier mache', we used some sort of paste. I remember we used gawgaw (starch) which, when mixed with water and stirred constantly over medium flame, will eventually turn into something very much like paste. We did not have to keep count on how many cupps of water and gawgaw we needed; everything was approximated. And then, to keep the shelf life of the paste longer, we would add some vinegar at the same time as the water and gawgaw is mixed.

Many books I read make use of watered-down PVC paste. Now, PVC paste is something I am not familiar with and so I am going to use the next best thing: flour and water (with some vinegar).

Here is the procedure to make paste from flour as adapted from The Papier Mache Resource website:

Ingredients:
4 cups boiling water
1 cup cold water
3/4 cup flour
3 tablespoons vinegar (optional)

Procedure:
Mix the cold water and the flour until well-blended. Make sure there are no lumps. If you would like the paste to keep for more than a week, add the vinegar. I cooked a batch and it was promptly consumed for a week and it looked like it can still go for a week more.

Pour the mixture into the boiling water (over medium heat). Stir constantly. Soon, the mixture will thicken and turn into a gooey consistency. This will take about three to four minutes. Set aside and let cool.

I use a plastic milk bottle to store my paste. Very handy.

You can use this paste not only for papier mache' but also for other projects that need large amounts of paste.

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