home made paper mache recipe

By demand… since some people demanded me to write down the recipe for paper mache.

Use with care. We don't want oversized way too thick horrible looking cosplay props. Keep it neat and give the name art back to paper mache.

Glue recipe

Water, wall paper glue and a bit of clove powder against mould. If you wish, you can already add some plaster, or leave it out until you're done with the paper mache.
And of course: news papers. Lots and lots of 'm, cut to pieces.

You can go for:
1. ripping news papers apart and applying those;
2. pre-cut every bit of newspaper and mix it with glue mixture (for covering things up)
3. pre-cut and don't add with glue mixture but apply glue mixture later
4. pre-cut, boil it down and press water out. Mix with glue mixture to get some sort of clay. You can actually use this as clay.
5. Pre-cut, sand to bits, boil it down and press water out. This is supposed to be the better variant of option 4.

Experiment with the thickness of the glue, too wet means longer drying period. Too thick means you'll soon run out of glue mixture and that it hardens too fast.

When you start, and start you shall if it's your intention to use this form of art, know what you want to make. Seek out how other people made it. Not everyone is equipped with power tools, or has the patience to do everything by hand (point a and b apply to me I lack that sort of patience and room for power tools… )

Lets start with something simple: a sword.


Centre of your prop

From cardboard you draw and cut the shape. If you don't dare to handle, or are too young to handle the knife, leave that up to someone who can. Please, do keep the dimensions right. Make sure you've got two or three layers of cardboard sword. Why, one might ask?

Why? Because you can apply wood between the layers to strengthen it a little bit. It makes the prop more rigid. I've had a cardboard sword once, and it sucked. Thus I took it apart and applied chop sticks for sate and icicles in between and it was more rigid. It wasn't what I wanted, but it suited for the moment.
So, you might want to add chopsticks. For the smaller bits you can use smaller chopsticks, for the larger parts you use larger chopsticks.
This has a disadvantage though: it makes the prop thicker. So keep it with two or three layers of cardboard and in between the layers, only one layer of wood.

To glue that together you use super-extra-ultra strong glue. I adore the glue from Bison, it's strong and when applied, it won't let go. Spray-it-on glue is also great, but experiment a little, so you know what kind of glue suits your purposes best.

Papers

When you let the centre dry, you can do with old newspapers whatever you want. Rip it apart, cut it in bits and pieces, grind it, boil it, siff it, do with it whatever you want, as long as it'll suit your purposes. Make sure you've got a lot. When I mean a lot, several weeks of daily newspaper will suffice your purposes nicely.

When the sword's dry (check the descriptions of the glue manufacturer to make sure when what is dry after what period of time) you can start with the paper mache mixture.

Commence the paper mache!

You take a bucket (since Mommah's are tend to get a bit angry when you destroy their favourite buckets, you might want to protect the bucket with a new garbage bag) and throw in a bit of the wallpaper glue powder (usually it's powder) and add water and clove powder. A teaspoon will do. It's against moulding. Mix it with a random kitchen fork that's no longer used for kitchen duties. You can also add some plaster for hobby already, but if you want to leave that out for now, it's okay.

add the paper mache

Add the paper mache! Go on, don't be shy. But before you do (Mommah's do tend to bet very angry when you make a glue mess of the house, so make sure you use this stuff in a suitable environment, such as the hobby-room, the shed, the basement, garden, balcony, at least: away from Mommah's clean house)

You can make a mess, make sure you are dressed to make a mess (not your refined best outfit, but clothes that can become dirty. Very dirty)

Add ONE layer of paper mache and only ONE at the time. If you go ahead randomly and add dozens of layers, the outside will dry and the inside won't dry as quickly. So to get the best effect: one at the time. Smoothen it out and apply lots and lots of glue mixture.

Wrinkles are a pain in the *rse, but if wrinkles do appear when drying, you can sand those away when dry.

When dry, sand and add another layer of paper mache. Three to four layers at the most will do. That way you keep it neat. Sand between the layers so you have a bit of a rougher surface (glue will add better with rougher surface) and wrinkles are smoothened out a bit.

When the last layer is done, let it dry at least a day. That way your sure all the moist is out. The paper mache glue mixture can be kept in a period of 3 months, so you can paper mache something else.

Ganosse

Who? You might ask.
Not who, but what. Ganosse. _{Ganasse is a delicious whipped cream-chocolate-butter mixture that goes on your home backed chocolate pie, Ganosse on your paper mache}

You use:
Wall paper glue
Water (easy on the water! And I mean very easy on the water)
Plaster for hobby use only
Clove powder against the mould
In a bucket protected by a new clean large garbage can bag

Add it the same way you've added the paper mache. Be very easy with it. Two to three layers will do. Thus you protect the paper mache, but the ganosse layer is very delicate, just like a plaster statue it's easily destroyed. So this is one prop you can't use to fence or smack people's skulls in.

Add one layer at the time and let it dry for a period of 5-6 hours. Sand between the layers, but this time you smoothen the surface a lot.

When it's dry, and eventually the last layer is also dry after a day hardening, sand it for the last time.

Painting

Now you can add paint. I went for several layers of acrylic paint, Amsterdam Silver for the surface and instead of using a paint brush, I used a smaller size of surgeon's glove and smoothened it out by hand. It takes time to dry between the layers. Finish the blade with the colours you want to use. If really smoothened, you can also add spray paint if you believe that's faster.
Also, sand a little between the layers and clean before applying another layer of paint.

So all in all, you'll be busy for a week or two, with gluing, drying, sanding and painting. If done finely – and you'll know when you've done finely – you can even fool LaRP weapon's traders with it.

I did, and it made me darn proud that something so disrespected could fool a good trader like him.

Go on and stun the world with your props made from paper mache!