My Top Secret Posh Paper Mache Recipe! £15.
This recipe is free for sculpture workshop attendees and members and is aimed at more advanced learners.
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Paper Mache as an art material and art form tends to be much more highly regarded in cultures such France, America and Mexico and whilst everybody seems to have had a go at doing it, usually during their school days, and a few paper mache artist exist here and there in the U.K., it's versatility as a medium is sadly overlooked. Aside from it's cheapness, accessibility and adaptability, which I love, one of the things that attracts me to it is the challenge of having paper mache art taken a little more seriously as a medium to create art!
Posh Paper Mache Birds being constructed.
You will be able to find other recipes on the internet and in books which are freely available with a little research and if you are a serious sculptor I recommend looking into them to see if they are more suitable for your particular project. My recipe is not a copy but is particular to my requirements and has been arrived at through my own research plus trial and error with the emphasis on making my work durable for selling to private and trade customers such as shops and galleries and a keen eye on customers satisfaction. In short, I can’t sell products that are going to easily break or degenerate or my customers will be upset with me and will return work demanding a refund or I will not have my work stocked by retailers, so you can trust that this recipe has been tried and tested! I have experimented over a number of years and developed the best combination of materials that are readily available in the U.K. and most other countries in order to give me the following properties that I require to make my own work as durable as possible.
What properties does my method offer?
Waterproofing. Customers always ask if my work can be placed outside. The mix is inherently water resistant and with a final coat of varnish sculptures will last for a few years outside and with maintenance, even longer.
Flexibility. I add in materials which are used in the building trade to knit concrete together and make it more pliable which helps to prevent cracking in frosts or in excessive heat, such as the 40 degree heatwave we experienced in the U.K. recent years. This is my solution to help combat, if not completely resolve these sorts of problems and minimise any necessary repairs the odd complaint.
Mould resistance. If you use a traditional flour mix instead of my recipe, your work may take a long time to dry out and subsequently, because flour is an organic foodstuff, can become mouldy, which is highly unpleasant (this can be helped with the addition of a little bleach to the mix). My Posh Paper Mache Mix goes off or cures (becomes chemically solid) in a short period of time before drying out completely and will not go mouldy.
Strength. Once the Posh Paper Mache Mix has cured, the sculpture becomes increasingly strong as it dries out and cures, forming a hard shell.
Smooth Texture. My combination of materials makes a smoother mix whereas a traditional mix including flour can be quite lumpy and gooey to work with. The finished product can be sanded and sealed or other methods can be used to achieve an even smoother surface.
Weather resistant Posh Paper Mache Full Sized Sheep Sculpture
Technically this recipe can be classed as mixed media and not strictly paper mache sculpture, however it is a close relation of the traditional paper mache recipe (which you can find for free elsewhere on my Blog), using the majority of the traditional recipe as its base. My recipe includes a large proportion of paper pulpand can used in very much the same way to the traditional recipe.
To achieve successful sculptures using this recipe it is best used in combination with my techniques for building an armature, but don’t let that stop you experimenting with it. This recipe allows me the freedom to make a huge variety of quite complex and even oversized sculptural forms, safe in the knowledge that they will be strong and weather resistant, with the proof being the length of time I have been producing work this way (since 2014) and the large number of happy customers that now own a piece of my sculpture (I've lost count!).
You can download my recipe in full by following the link below. You will also find a growing number of blogs and short videos showing you how to I go about making individual projects to read. To get access to full instructions how to make things plus comprehensive start to finish videos showing how things are made, join my membership which I am currently offering for an earlybird monthly payment of £15.
Buy The Recipe
(Available from the shop).