Colourful Paper Mache Cats

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

Containers of paper mache paste - just plain flour and water mixed

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

* we finished our Romero Britto Hearts and did Andy Warhol Watercolour cats at the end of this lesson if finished early

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!

Cheers
Fiona