Tuesday 11 June 2013

Recycling Maps

Today I am doing a tutorial here on the blog.  I came up with this idea - which to be honest isn't new - I used to teach it 30 years ago!  And then went through the current edition of Craft Stamper and found it in there.

You will need a bowl of some kind - a plastic one is probably best.
A tub of Vaseline or petroleum jelly
Some cling film
A couple of maps.
Some PVA glue (Mod Podge in the US) and an old paint brush
Some coloured tissue paper
Some newspaper
a couple of wet wipes or a wet cloth

Tear up the tissue paper, maps and newspaper into 1 inch squares or a bit larger but not too big.  DO this first!

 Cover the outside of the bowl with Vaseline and then put a piece of cling film over the top.   Press down to remove most of the wrinkles.

Use lots of the white glue.  You cannot use too much glue with this technique.

Brush the white glue over the suurface and glue down the map pieces.  Remember this will be the inside of your blowl do put the printed side down.

Cover the whole bowl using lots of white glue under and over each piece of paper you put on.

Do the same again using newspaper.  Remember use lots of glue.  Try to turn the bowl in the opposite direction as you add this layer so that the joins are going in the opposite direction to the first layer.

Next layer: glue down the tissue paper.

Cover over the tissue paper with newspaper.  The tissue paper helps you see where you have got to and any bits you've missed.


At this point you could do another tissue layer and another newspaper layer.  It depends how sturdy you want your bowl to be.

Last layer.  Glue on the map pieces, print side up.  Use lots of glue!   Remember to turn the bowl in the opposite direction to the previous layer.

Put the bowl somewhere to dry.  Leave at least over night.  I was impatient so I eased the papier mache off too soon and as you can see the bowl continued to dry without the form and dried a bit skewiff!




I cut the rough edges off the bowl.  At this point you have to decide how you will finish it.  If you didn't use enough glue you will find the layers parting and you will need to either put extra map paper from front to back in small strips or use washi tape to seal it.

Mine was ok so I just ran along the edge with a bronze Distress paint.  And here it is on in use on my table.



If you don't have any map paper then you can use music paper or book paper.  Do share what you make with us via the linky below.