Papier mache is a way of making objects from paper. Either paper strips and glue or paper pulp to which is added some type of glue or paste. You can make small objects or very large objects. The cute fellow on the right measures about 3 feet to the tip of his snout. The only thing holding you back is your imagination, not your lack of experience. Get some paste, tear up a newspaper and get going.

You can form objects from strips of paper which are brushed with glue and then applied to some form of armature or support.
This can be as simple as an inflated balloon to give a spherical shape, or more complicated forms made from cardboard, wire, wood even plastic or glass bottles.
Anything may be used depending on the object to be created or the imagination of the person doing the creating.

Paste recipes vary from good old fashioned flour and water to wallpaper paste. You can also use PVA either straight from the bottle or diluted with water.

If you use wallpaper paste remember that some types contain a fungicide. this is great to stop your masterpiece from going mouldy, but don't use it for projects involving children.

Almost any type of paper can be used as long as it will absorb glue, of course if its too absorbent it will dissolve before you can do anything useful with it.
Newspaper is probably the most widely used paper, but you can experiment with any type.

I always wanted a ships figurehead but they are either enormous or expensive or obviously both. So I recently decided to make one, I decided that papier mache would probably be the easiest way to do it!

As I haven't made anything from papier mache since my school days (don't ask how long ago that was) that was probably a bit rash to say the least. Nevertheless I did a bit of research (don't you love the internet) got my hands on a book of wood carving patterns and set to.
The figure head is based on various real wooden figureheads of the famous Jenny Lind.

As I decided to make Jenny about 3 feet high I needed an armature to build on. An armature is simply a form of some sort which you can stick your paper strips or pulp onto.

I decided to use thick card as a basis to build on, it was some old packing cartons. So I traced my enlarged drawings on to the card and cut out the shapes.

I used one piece of card for the front view and one for the profile or side view. I stuck them together with a hot glue gun. A very handy tool but watch your fingers!

I next used a mixture of chicken wire and masking tape to give some form to the armature. I wouldn't have needed the masking tape if I could have got my hands on some chicken wire with smaller mesh size

Sadly as I didn't really think about sharing this I don't have many more intermediate photos. What I did was to build up the form using paper pulp made from newspaper, wallpaper paste and pva.

I worked on the folds in the skirt first and then left it to dry. When the pulp was dry I covered it with strips of newspaper and glue.

Next step was to model the head and face, not the easiest part as I'm no sculptor. I then worked on the bust and shoulders, again using the pulp mixture. When that dried, I modelled the ringlets.

The hair on top of the head and the ringlets was made by using wadded paper kitchen towel dipped in paste. The ringlets were just crudely shaped sausages covered over with newspaper strips and glue.

When that was dry I used the pulp mixture to form the the detail in the ringlets. I more or less slapped on a layer of pulp and shaped it using anything to hand, paintbrush handles spoon handles and bowls, whatever did the trick.

The scrolls on the sides of the figurehead were made from strips of card glued in place then covered with layers of newspaper strips and glue.

When all this was dry I painted her with white acrylic primer. I also used acrylic paint for the finished colour painting.

apologies for the poor quality photos, I only took them originally for my own benefit using my phone.