Crafty entomologist

It's not exactly papier mâché, just a quick paper craft to decorate walls, beam structures and so on when spring is round the corner. 

To make it you need:

       * sheets of paper

    * all sort of coloured papers to stick (kraft paper, magazine paper, tissue paper, gift-wrapping paper...)

       * white paper glue

       * acrylic paint

       * paint brushes

       * thin wire 

       * tweezers

       * a glue gun.

The idea is to make several layers of a same butterfly design and colour each layer in different ways. 

Start with the largest layer but folding a white sheet of paper into 2. Draw on half of the desired shape, starting from folded side and then cut it. By opening the piece of paper, you will discover a symmetrical butterfly. 

To cut the next layer, use the previous one to draw on a folded paper the same design. Then, before cutting it, draw a smaller shape following what you've just delineated. Cut the smaller shape. Do that as many times as you want layers.

Decorate each layer where your imagination takes you. Then, stick them together using the glue gun.

The butterfly body can be made in many different ways (papier mâché, piece of wood...). I always like wire as you can twist it. However you decide to make this body and the antenna, just use once more the glue gun to put in on the top of all the wings. 

To hang the butterflies, I stuck a piece of wire using tape. Make sure it is discreet.  

Papier Mâché - Introduction

 A amazing crafty work to do with children is "Papier Mâché", which literally translates to chewed paper. I've got to say, its consistency does look like that as papier maché is basically a paper pulp mixed with some adhesive, usually wallpaper glue. I remember that as a kid, I just loved being hands-on, whether I was baking cake or on the beach, making sand castles.  I loved being covered by wet sand as I loved mixing cake dough using my fingers rather than a spoon. So, when my primary teacher told my class we were going to wear aprons and make papier maché, it was a new experience I was eager to have fun with. 

Papier mâché is also quite easy to prepare. 

The first step is to cut so news paper confettis. I usually find that the smaller the better, as it mashes more easily. You can use a simple pair of scissors although it is quite time consuming. Using a paper shredder helps out. Plus it is quite fun. 

Once you have the confettis, soak them in water over night. Then, drain most of the water before adding the wallpaper glue. Careful, it should be neither too blobby nor  too sloppy. Remember, it has to be able to stand upright if you wish it. Too blobby (too mush glue), it won't be as easy to shape. Too sloppy (too much water), it won't shape at all. In both cases, the drying part will also be a problem.

I don't think there is a perfect ration to respect. It depends on what you want to do and what you are comfortable working with. Anything around 1/4 of the total volume being glue should be ok. 

It is also noteworthy that some people like to use a blender to prepare the paper pulp. In that case the paper confettis are even smaller which make the final craftwork quite smooth. It is also quicker to prepare. However, if you don't have such piece of equipment or if you don't want to use it, the method I described works really well. Remember, you can sand-paper papier maché, once it is dry, making look smooth too. Plus, I always cover the dried pulp with stripes of news paper stuck with some more wallpaper glue, before colouring the final crafty work. There are a few solutions, easy to operate, to smooth down papier mâché. 

On the other hand, it can be quite interesting to used rough-looking papier mâché to give some character to what you want to create.

Papier maché, once dry, is quite light. However, if you wish to make giant pieces, a good option to consider is to use a hollow structure to support the paper pulp. I tend to use metallic meshed fence rolls to give the initial shape of my finial construction. 

Papier Mâché has been used for many centuries, whether is was in Egypt to make masks or in Orient to decorate outfits. Nowadays, it is often perfect to prepare carnivals. But some artists have created some amazing pieces of work with papier mâché, my favourite of all being Niki de Saint Phalle with her Nana's sculptures. These are a couple of pictures of these sculptures I found on the web:

 

Prince charming

First giant attempt in my early sculpture days. The lilly leave is above 1m2. I guess that's what you get when you dare someone to make a prince charming. Yeah. This is not just any dart frog. This is a frog supposed to turn into a prince. See the crown!!!

Sea turtle memory

          This sea turtle is in memory of someone who always remembered them from a trip to French Guadaloupe. At the time, I was a little one and I couldn't understand what she meant when describing the atmosphere around these creatures. A trip to Mauritius, where giant terrestrial tortoises are roaming some offshore islands, fixed this. She was truthfully right. There is some kind of ancient wisdom in the air around them.

Tortue Luth (Dermochelys coriacea), E.Chavel 2011

Poison dart frogs

          Piece of 4 poison dart frogs, in which I tried for the first time to mix paper, pearls and fimo dough.  First piece also means first difficulties. That was just a nightmare to stick the cooked dough and make fingers. Using glue wasn't a great idea.

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Phelsuma ornata

          The first thing which stroke me, when I left Mauritius after almost 2 years living there, was the great amount of pieces of art representing wildlife. Wildlife takes up lots of time in my life and living in the world we live in, I never realized people enjoyed it as much as I do. The only difference was that they didn't know it. I started wondering if the conservation of ecosystems, species could get taught to the public by using art, especially when it comes to children. It is always more efficient to have them 'hands on' when teaching them. 

          There is one activity I loved as a child: creating objects with papier-maché. It was the right time to get back to it. My first piece was a green gecko (Phelsuma ornata) I could enjoy the presence on a daily basis in Mauritius. 

           This sculpture is now often commented by people visiting me, allowing me to start on some of my gecko stories and to introduce my job as a conservation biologist. 

Green gecko on its Latania fruit (E.Chavel, 2010)

Green gecko on its Latania fruit (E.Chavel, 2010)