Get Stuck on Papier-Mache!

I've been slow to finish telling you all about my state conference.  In the pic above, I'm about to present a tell-all workshop about my favorite medium for working with kids, papier-mache, which I'll be talking about in this post.  Notice that in every photo, my name tag is turned around backwards so that all you can see are things like my dinner tickets and such.  Which is a shame, because I put a lot of effort into making it pretty at the Bling Your Badge table.  But at least you can see all the eyeballs on the neck strap, and the ribbon for participating in the member 10x10 show.... 

This post isn't actually about the Bling table, but I can't write about the convention without mentioning this activity.  I'm proud to say that the Bling Your Badge table was my brainchild about 1/2 dozen years ago, when the convention was going to be in our region for the first time in a while.  I thought art teachers would like something to occupy their hands during their spare moments.  And boy was I right.  The table has been so immensely popular that we sponsor it annually, no matter where the convention is held, and I'm the gal in charge.  It is so popular that, before dinner and the evening events I'll unplug and hide the glue guns and power strip, and clean up the mess of spilled rhinestones and pipe cleaners and wiggle eyes and close the containers, and I'll come back an hour later and find the glue guns all plugged back in, with the containers open and feathers and sequins sparkly foam stickers and such again spilled out all over the table.  Art teachers are persistent about wanting to fancy-up their badges!  It's hard to get angry when you've made so many people at the convention have a happy smile.

Anyhow, back to my workshop.  I shared my unique methods of doing papier-mache and avoiding wads of drippy gooey paper that take weeks to dry.  We talked about using the benefits of using paper bags and plastic bags as armatures, along with many other options, and I gave my usual warning about the potential problem when using balloons as armatures by telling the story of my late afternoon disaster, when I was alone in the school and thought I heard gunshots.  It wasn't guns after all; it was the sound of one-after-another balloon, covered with fresh papier-mache, popping.  About half of the 50 balloons had to be replaced in a hurry, and I spent the next hour (when I should have been home for dinner) inflating new balloons inside a couple of dozen collapsing messes of gooey wet newspaper.  Not fun...

The masks pictured above use a paper lunch bag armature, and the cats below use a plastic grocery bag armature.  The bags are, of course, stuffed with crumpled newspaper.  And of course that's me with slightly blue hair doing my presentation.  If you want to know about the eyeball in the background, you can read about them in the blog post you'll find by clicking HERE. By searching my blog you can also find info on the various projects pictured in the images bleow.

The delicious ice cream cones pictured below are made from a newspaper ball armature, on top of a paper or oaktag cone.  Easy papier-mache project and oh-so-fun!

We discussed much more in the workshop, but since I wasn't the person taking the photos, this is all I've got.  But that's OK, because if you want to know everything about the workshop, my handouts and PowerPoint are available for you, with all sorts of advice and instructions for using papier-mache successfully!   Here's a link to my papier-mache handout from the convention workshop:  Get Stuck on Papier-Mache - handout.

For  links to my PowerPoint from this workshop, or various other documents uploaded from previous workshop presentations, including instructions for several papier-mache projects presented in a workshop at NAEA 2016, you can find them by going to my 'Document Weblinks' tab, which is located HERE.  The PowerPoint document has not been uploaded yet, but hopefully will be tonight.  In the meantime, there's a link to my PowerPoint from NAEA 2016. 

The documents available through these links are available for your benefit and to help inform your teaching, but I ask that you please acknowledge my ownership of them and not copy or share them publicly.  You are NOT free to share my PowerPoint in a class or workshop without my permission. Thank you.  

Note: I still have more to share about the convention in another upcoming post!