Thread: Home made paper "clay"

Tweet

Ok, so this is not really so much of a tutorial as just a sharing of something that worked.

I decided to try and make something similar to celluclay, but one that is made without the use of real clay (celluclay is a mix of pulverized paper and real clay). I wanted something more suited to my mache projects, while also maintaining the level of low-cost...I gots NO money.

Here's what I did:

1. ripped 1 small local newspaper & 1 small flyer into 1" strips, then tore those strips into 1" pieces (roughly creating 1" square pieces of newsprint).

2. threw all that into a pot with lots of water

3. boiled it on a low rolling bubble for about 1.5 hours (until the paper truns to pulp and there are no visible paper pieces left...let it cool

4. poured all that into a strainer, let sit for awhile, then pressed out as much water as possible with my hands.

5. grabbed remaining pulp in my hands and squeezed out all the water I could

6. put it all through an old blender I picked up for $2

7. mixed some of the "dry" pulp into a small amount of my paper mache paste (1 cup flour, 2 cups water, 1/2 cup white glue, 3 tablespoons of salt as mold prevention) until I had something resembling slightly watery clay.

8. used it to do some detail sculpting on my mache skull

9. grinned a whole lot with pleasure at the result.

This stuff dries hard as rock and has the added bonus of really resembling bone in color & texture once it's dry.

Anyway, it sounds like a lengthy process, but most of it is just waiting. It really quite quick & painless, and seems to be quite effective. Hence the reason for sharing.

If you use it, enjoy!

Just what I've been looking for thanks for sharing! Going to try this making some skeleton people. Do you think you could run the paper through an office shredder?

Thank you I've been looking for a good mache clay recipe please post some pics I wanna see how it's suppose to look

I am not really big into paper mache, but by seeing what people make out of it I will definitely have to try it out sometime!

Originally Posted by dragoncastle

Just what I've been looking for thanks for sharing! Going to try this making some skeleton people. Do you think you could run the paper through an office shredder?

I have heard that you rip it on purpose because you need the fibers easier to break down, rather than the clean cut of scissors/paper shredder.

Originally Posted by dixie

I have heard that you rip it on purpose because you need the fibers easier to break down, rather than the clean cut of scissors/paper shredder.

Would it not matter though if your boiling the heck out of it and blending it?

We have a shredder at work that basically turns paper into large dust particles. Beings as we are military we usually have a big bag of it laying around.

I took some, and on a whim I mixed it with my paper mache glue until it became a nice paste consistency. I succesfully used this to sculpt with.

Thanks for sharing, this is just what i needed for my jason voorhees prop

I boiled mine forever and a day, it never did break down. I had to use the blender I think it was because ads.

Well heres an easier idea even than newspaper use paper egg cartons they dissolve much easier I have used then in paper projects for my daughters school they break down quickly in water I have to try it but maybe a mix of egg carton and newspaper hmmmm