A lot of interesting and beautiful things can be made from a material called papier-mâché. The material is very cheap and provides a lot of freedom for creativity.
To make a papier-mâché box, you first need to make the material itself. Papier-mâché is a mass based on paper. Therefore, before work, you will need to stock up on old newspapers, unnecessary paper. You will also need wallpaper glue, an acrylic-based primer, acrylic paints, brushes, varnish to fix and give a beautiful look to the product.
Making papier-mâché
To make papier-mâché, the prepared paper must be torn into small strips. For the future casket, you need to choose a shape - it can be, for example, an ordinary small box. It must be smeared with petroleum jelly, so that later the resulting workpiece can be easily removed. Now you need to soak the pieces of paper with water and paste over the form with them.
For the second layer, a strip of paper is smeared with glue and glued to the mold. The next strip is glued alongside with an overlap. This covers the entire surface of the mold. After that, the paper is glued in several more layers. The paper should be saturated with glue as much as possible. After that, the product must be left to dry completely.
Take a good look at the resulting workpiece. If it seems necessary to reinforce the walls, apply a few more layers of paper. Let the product dry completely.
Now the blank must be removed from the mold and the surface must be prepared for decoration. A form is pulled out of the resulting paper box - if they have not forgotten to grease it with petroleum jelly, this should work out without difficulty. Uneven edges should be trimmed with sharp scissors. The lid for the box can be cut out of thick cardboard, or it can be made according to the same principle as the base. In this version, you will not need to attach it - it will simply be put on top.
If the lid is cut from cardboard, it must be attached to the box itself. Using a hole punch on the lid and on the box, you need to make holes. They should be located on the back side - a cord will be passed through them in order to fasten the cover and the lower part to each other. Now the product needs to be coated with a primer. The primer layer must also be dried well.
How to decorate a papier-mâché box
One of many options: the box is painted with black or other dark paint. This will be the background. You can depict a beautiful miniature on it, and if the master does not have the ability to paint, just apply a pattern with neat lines. The cover and base are fastened together with a cord. Finally, the box is varnished.
From the inside, the box can be painted with any paint that seems suitable in color. After drying, it is necessary to treat this layer with varnish.
You can mold figurines from salted dough for decoration and fix them on the lid. You can create a beautiful composition from pieces of fabric, unnecessary buttons, beads, scraps of braid or lace.
