Paper Mache Bowl
I had been looking for a gray textured decorative bowl, but as always, wanted to see if I could make one before spending any money. My favorite part of this project was that I had everything I needed already at home! It had been a long time since I paper mached anything, but it was super easy to figure out (albeit a little messy).
What you’ll need:
A bowl
Baking flour and water
Tinfoil
Old paper (I used only bills, but any newspaper or scrap paper will do)
Paint
Step 1: Cut paper and make paste
Cut your old paper into strips. I made mine about 1.5” wide. They don’t have to be perfect, but keep them all generally the same size.
Mix flour and water together to make your “glue”. I didn’t measure anything for this part, but the goal is to have a paste like consistency.
Step 2: Cover bowl
Choose a bowl you like the shape of and cover the outside with tinfoil. Make sure the foil is wrapped tightly around the bowl, hugging all the curves well.
Step 3: Paper mache the outer bowl
This is the fun part, but it is a little messy. Take each strip of paper and dip it in your “glue”, then apply it to the tinfoil in a crisscross pattern. Keep going until you’ve covered the entire outer bowl at least once. I did about two “coats” of paper. Also I learned to only use enough paste to make the paper stick- don’t oversaturate it or it will take forever to dry.
Step 4: Repeat on inside of the bowl
Once your outside is completely hardened (this took about 24 hours for mine), remove the inner bowl. You will be left with your outer cast and the tinfoil center. I folded down the tinfoil edges, then repeated step 3 on the inside of the tinfoil.
Step 5: Paint
Once my inner bowl was completely hardened, I painted the whole thing. I started with a coat of gray (leaving some of the white showing through), then dry brushed some black for added texture.
I was surprised with how sturdy this bowl actually turned out! And for another free project, I couldn’t be happier.
Comments
Join the conversation
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I absolutely love the sentence: you can use newspaper - I use BILLS 🤣
This is hilarious.
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Good way to get rid of them!
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you sure are right about that ! I loved the humor in it.
I have used newspaper strips to weave baskets and my fruits and also
tomatoes don´t spoil as fast in them. I do like your bowl idea. My problem is, since
I am always making something, and collect, too - I need a second house soon.
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
How do you remove the inner bowl if it's covered with foil and paper mache?
My question is going to be a little different. Ael32445497 asked how to remove the inner bowl '18 hours ago.' Three people responded to the question 'Yesterday.' Then Aurora Q. Martinez responded '24 hours ago' and finally Terri provided her two cents '22 hours ago.' To rephrase (I think) what I just said, How did everybody know AND post their comment before the question was asked? The newest response was 22 hours ago, followed by the 24 hours ago. The other three had to be before that time since they are referenced as 'same question' and 'thanks for the answers.'