This guide provides an introduction to the art of papier-mâché. It offers step-by-step instructions for creating a variety of fun and creative projects. Learn how to make masks, sculptures, and other decorative items.
Papier-mâché is a versatile craft technique with roots in ancient China, in which waste paper is shredded and mixed with water and a binder to produce a pulp ideal for modelling or moulding, which dries to a hard surface and allows the creation of light, strong and inexpensive objects of any shape, even very complicated ones. There are various recipes, including those using cardboard and some mineral elements such as chalk or clay. Papier-mâché reinforced with textiles or boiled cardboard can be used for durable, sturdy objects. There is even carton-cuir and also a "laminating process", a method in which strips of paper are glued together in layers. Binding agents include glue, starch or wallpaper paste. "Carton-paille" or strawboard was already described in a book in 1881. Pasteboard is made of whole sheets of paper glued together, or layers of paper pulp pressed together. Millboard is a type of strong pasteboard that contains old rope and other coarse materials in addition to paper.