ALL LEVELS
Students apply wet papier-smâché to a relief sculpture.
Clyde Gaw
After years of making salt-dough and papier-mâché glue solutions, my students and I began to mash and pulverize wet paper to create an inexpensive and versatile sculpting material they call “papier-smâché.”
We observed that the initial phase of this process is physically intensive. I have always understood that elementary-aged schoolchildren have an abundance of energy. From a physiological and developmental standpoint, it is critical for educators to put that energy to constructive use.
Transforming scrap paper into a compelling three-dimensional sculpture can be an incredibly meaningful experience for young artists.
Utilizing a variation on the mortarand-pestle processing method, children will enthusiastically smash wet paper with pounding sticks into fivegallon buckets. After a five-minute mashing session, combinations of wheat paste, white glue, or flour were mixed in. There is a “sweet spot” in the consistency of the mixture, so we had to add or subtract water if it was too wet or dry.
The Basic Recipe
- Soak torn scrap paper in water for at least five to ten minutes in a durable container. (Avoid using plastic-coated paper.)
- Drain the water from the container.
- Use two to three 2 x 2' or 2 x 4' pounding sticks to pulverize the wet paper. Continue pounding until the paper starts to break down. Add or subtract water as needed.
- Add glue in a one-to-twenty ratio to the mixture. This ratio may need to be adjusted throughout the mixing process.
- Continue to pulverize the paper and glue with pounding sticks until material is thoroughly incorporated.
- After a consistency is achieved, sculpt away!
- Dry the finished sculptures in warm sunlight. Depending on the moisture content and drying environment, the sculptures will dry in three to seven days.
Try It!
Papier-smâché has become a popular sculpting material in our high-school TAB program. In fact, some of our most important and monumental works have been created using papier-smâché. Fresh papier-smâché has the plasticity of clay but once it has cured, it’s hard as a rock. Students love to sand, prime, and paint their sculpted objects.
Transforming scrap paper into a compelling three-dimensional sculpture can be an incredibly meaningful experience for young artists.
Students apply primer to a papier-smâché abstract sculpture.
A cardboard square grid with painted papier-smâché relief forms.
RESOURCE
Papier-Smâché Demo video
Clyde Gaw teaches art at New Palestine High School in Central Indiana. clyde@teachingforartisticbehavior.org