However, many people really like it, and never use anything else. I don’t personally like using glue with my paper mache sculptures because I don’t like the way it feels when it dries on my hands. If you need a paste that dries perfectly clear, you can use Elmer’s Glue-All (or any white PVA glue) mixed with just enough water to make the glue thinner and easier to spread. However, if you have a gluten allergy, you’ll need one of the options below. Tips: This is an excellent choice if you need a paste that dries clear. You’ll obviously want to keep your hands out of it while it’s still hot enough to burn. The paste will be somewhat runny when it’s hot, but it will gel slightly as it cools. As soon as it starts to bubble, remove the pan from the heat and allow the paste to cool. Stir with a silicone spatula if you have one. When it begins to thicken, be sure to watch carefully and keep stirring, to make sure it doesn’t burn. Put the pan on the stove at medium heat and slowly bring it to a boil, stirring constantly. Mix the white flour and water in a small saucepan. If you want the last layer of paper to be seen on the finished sculpture, you’ll need one of the clear paste alternatives below.Īnd if you have a gluten allergy, you’ll want to use one of the gluten-free alternatives.Ĭooked paper mache paste will dry almost clear, unlike the raw paste, and the surface of your paper mache sculpture will be slightly smoother. Tips: This paste is easy and strong, but it will leave a floury residue on the outside of your sculpture. That’s good for paper mache, but not so good for the person washing the dishes. (If you need a paste that can be kept for longer periods of time, see the Elmer’s Art Paste, below.)īe sure to clean the bowl and utensils before the paste has time to dry – it will dry very hard. It’s best to whip up as much as you need today, throw out any paste that’s left over, and make a new batch tomorrow – or whenever you need some more. If the paste is kept over from one session to the next, the yeast will break down the flour and make the paste less sticky (and slightly stinky). Wild yeast is attracted to flour (that’s how sourdough bread is made.) This is good advice for any paste made with wheat flour. Make up just enough for one sculpting session. Whole-wheat flour makes healthier bread, but it isn’t sticky enough to make good paste. What kind of flour will work? You’ll need to use all-purpose white flour. How thick should you make your paste? You want it thin enough so it looks more like white glue than pancake batter – although thicker paste will work OK, too, if that’s the way you like it. Watch this video to see how to apply paper strips and paste to an armature. If you have one, an immersion blender works great). Add hot water gradually until you have a consistency that will work well. But the weather is still way too cold for me to paint my dragon out on the front porch.To make the paste, just pour some white flour in a bowl. Next week, I should be done with these silly stairs, so I can go back to doing something a bit more fun. I used the instructions on this site to make the stair tread gauge. Here in South Dakota people don’t wear shoes in the house, and I don’t think I can do too much damage with my slipper toes. I’ll paint the stair risers, too, and I hope they don’t get scuffed up too much. I tend to ding the paper when I carry big things up the stairs. I should have touched up the paint before I took these photos. The paper I put over that old ratty bookcase, just to the left of the stairs, is starting to show a bit of wear. Replacing the wood would cost a small fortune, but, of course, it would look a lot nicer. The treads themselves will get new non-slip vinyl covers, dark brown, the least expensive option I could find. The wood is sound, but very beat up, and it had so so many nails and staples that I’m still finding more, after hours of work to get rid of them. In fact, they still look pretty bad, since the treads themselves haven’t been covered up yet. I’m kind of embarrassed to show you the ‘before’ picture because my stairs looked so bad after I pulled off the old carpet. You can see how I did it, and how I cut the paper to get an exact fit, in the video. Maybe there’s someone else out there with stairs that look just as bad as mine, and who would like a nice relatively cheap way to make them look better. OK, using Elmer’s Art Paste to stick textured wallpaper on stair risers isn’t exactly a paper mache project – but it’s what I’ve been doing this week, and I decided to show it to you anyway.
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