Paper Mache Clay

Update: 1/5/10: I have been messing around with paper mache for over 50 years and up until a few months ago I always came back to the easiest paper mache recipes, using plain old white flour and water paste with torn strips of newspaper.

Now, however, I have abandoned the traditional layered paper process and use my new paper mache clay recipe for all my sculptures. Although most of the tutorials on this site were made before I came up with the clay recipe, any of the patterns and instructions can be easily converted for use with the clay. Just use a thin layer of paper mache clay in place of the layers of paper and paste.

Since most people are not yet familiar with the new clay recipe, I’ll leave the flour paste recipe below. However, I encourage you to give the new clay a try. It isn’t for young children, because it isn’t edible. However, for artists who no longer eat their art materials, it’s a great way to create life-like sculptures with less mess, and less frustration. You can find the new clay recipe here. If you’d like to see what your sculpture may look like after the clay has hardened and the paint has been applied, check out the big cats (bobcat, lion cubs and snow leopard) on my gallery page.

Paper Mache Paste Recipe:

Paper Mache Recipe #1

White flour and water make a remarkably strong paste. In fact, some folks think paper mache is strong enough to build houses with. Your finished sculptures might not be strong enough to hold up a house, but you can sand them and drill them, just like wood.

Boiled Flour and Water Paste:

Many people use a paste that is made of white flour and water that has been brought to a boil. I did some experimenting and found that this paste is not as strong as raw paste, so you’ll need more layers of paper to make your finished sculpture stiff enough. However, it does dry clear, so many people prefer it. To make boiled paste, mix a heaping tablespoon of white flour with a cup of water in a small saucepan and stir until there are no lumps. Put the pan on the stove at medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and allow to cool. The paste will be very runny at this stage, but it will gell as it cools.

Raw Flour and Water Paste:

This is the paste I almost always use, because it’s stronger than boiled paste and you can complete a project with only a few layers of paper. To make up the paste, just pour some white flour in a bowl, and add water gradually until you have a consistency that will work well. (Use a small kitchen mixer so you don’t have any lumps).

How thick should you make your paste? It’s actually up to you. Experiment with thick pastes that resemble hotcake batter, and thin pastes that are runny and watery. You get to decide which ones you prefer.

Keep in mind that it is the flour, and not the water, that gives strength to your paper mache sculpture. And also remember that each layer of paste and paper that is added to your project must dry completely to keep it from developing mold.

Speaking of mold, why not use wallpaper pastes that contain fungicides? There are two reasons why I choose to use white flour pastes, instead of ingredients that prevent mold. First, white flour is ridiculously cheap when compared to any other type of art supply. And second, I hate the idea of dipping my hands in something that contains poison. If small children were helping me with my projects, this would be even more important.

To prevent the development of mold in your projects, you just need to remember that molds cannot grow without water. Therefore, take every effort to dry out your projects completely. I usually put my small sculptures in a warm oven (not over 200 F) or place them near a radiator. Next summer I intend to build a solar dryer that will be large enough for bigger items. The main trick is to make sure the sculpture is dry all the way through – if any dampness is left inside when you apply paint or other finish, the sculpture will eventually rot from the inside out – a truly disappointing development, I assure you.

Paper Mache Recipe #2

Paper Mache Recipe #2:

I like to add a ’skin’ to most of my paper mache projects. To do this, I sand the sculpture after it is completely dry (paper mache can be sanded, sawn and drilled – just like wood). I then mix some carpenter’s glue into my flour and water paste. I sometimes add coloring, as you can see in the photo above. You can use powdered pigments (for the orangutan mask I used powered coloring used for concrete, which is available at a hardware store). You could also add acrylic paints to this paste recipe.

The carpenter’s glue adds a warm color to the paste and prevents it from cracking when it dries. If you add several layers of this paste to the outside of your projects and sand between coats, you can create a completely smooth surface that is perfect for painting or finishing. I leave this last layer off when I want the underlying paper to show through on the finished item, like the paper mache piggy bank.

Papers to Use for Paper Mache:

The traditional paper to use for paper mache is newspaper, which is torn into short strips. (Cut edges should be avoided, because they don’t blend in.) Newspaper is cheap, and it is a soft paper that is easy to bend and mold around a sculpture.

However, you can also use brown kraft paper from paper bags, which will give your sculpture a naturally warm color if the piece is left unpainted.

You can also use softer papers, like paper towels and even tissue paper. The softer papers are used to fashion delicate details, and textured paper towels can be used to add an interesting final coat. The paper mache dragon on this site used the bumpiness of paper towels to represent the dragon’s leathery skin.

Finishing Your Paper Mache Sculpture:

You can use any type of paint on your sculpture. I usually use acrylic craft paints, and a final glaze made from water-based verathane mixed with a bit of brown, or copper paint from the craft store. This final coat is put on with a brush and then immediately rubbed off with a paper towel, leaving the darker color in the dips and valleys of the sculpture. I happen to like the effect, but it is certainly not required.

Another way to make the paste:

If you don’t want to mess with flour and water, and you don’t mind spending the money for some Elmer’s glue, I found this video for a glue-based paper mache paste that you might want to use instead.