How funky are these CATS! These tied in nicely with our term Cats theme (inspired by the Andy Warhol / Ai Weiwei Cats exhibition on in Melbourne at the moment).
The kids have been begging me to do paper mache so I devised a paper mache cat project. I often get my ideas from others (thanks everyone for being so good and sharing ideas) however this one I did come up with all on my own so here are the instructions.
Before starting we watched a couple of youtube videos by Dan Reeder for inspiration. His paper mache creations are amazing!
What you need:
- empty water bottles (with rice in the bottom to keep them standing upright)
- masking tape
- brown paper bags (small lunch sized ones)
- newspaper
- stiff cardboard
- aluminum foil
- paper mache paste (I made my own just mixing flour and water)
- spray paint (you could use normal paint just takes longer to dry)
- accessories (feathers, eyes, jewels, fabric, pipe cleaners, wire, noses, buttons, ribbon, glitter, beads etc)
- hot glue gun or white glue
How To:
Week 1:
- Make the forms using the water bottles, newspaper scrunched for a head and foil / cardboard for the ears and tail. Use masking tape to attach everything. I went around the room and helped with this as needed and ensured bits were stuck on well enough.
- Tear up two brown paper bags into strips (the kids did this themselves)
- Coat paper strips with paper mache paste and apply one layer over entire form
- Allow to dry
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| Containers of paper mache paste - just plain flour and water mixed |
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| Cats before decorating |
Week 2:
- Tear up two brown paper bags
- Coat paper strips with paper mache paste and apply a second layer over entire form
- Allow to dry
Week 3:
- Spray cats with spray paint (low toxic sugar spray, using masks and outside)
- Leave to dry outside for 5 mins and then bring inside to add accessories
- For the eyes and noses we used the ones you buy for teddies and I drilled a hole in the paper mache for them to be pushed in.
- The kids then got really creative using fabric for clothes, feathers for the hair or hats, wire whiskers (some were pushed in some were glued) etc
The Results:
They all have such cute different personalities. I made the children leave them in the studio for a week so we could all admire them. Great effort everyone!
Fiona
