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How to Make a Huge Paper Mache Strawberry Sculpture

Effortless Huge Paper Mache Strawberry

You will learn how to form recycled newspaper into a Strawberry shape, cover with paper mache, paint, and protect with shine.

This paper mache project is easy, cheap, and great for someone wanting to learn the awesome art of paper mache.
We hope to be a spring board to get you started and encourage you to tweak, change the Strawberry up all you want.



Stuff List
Recycled Newspaper
Plastic bag
Masking Tape
Paper Mache Paste
Paints and Paint Brushes
Paper Clay (Optional)
Minwax Varnish
H20 and Rags

Steps to Make Your Strawberry Sculpture

1 Build Your Strawberry Armature
Begin by wading up newspaper into a huge teardrop shape using masking tape to hold into place. Continue to wade up the newspaper filling your bag until you have a nice fat strawberry. Slide your Strawberry shape into a plastic bag use the end of the bag to form the strawberry stem.
To form the leaves of cut cardboard into the shape you like and slide onto your strawberry stem. Use tape to hold into place.

This is your basic strawberry armature; change it up to be uniquely yours.

2 Paper Mache and Paper Clay
1st Session
Cover the Strawberry armature with 3 layers of newspaper using your hands soaked in paper mache paste. Ready your recycled paper by ripping the paper into strips of say 3 to 4 inches. Lay your newspaper strips flat onto your Strawberry armature and work out all air bubbles. As you continue to apply layers of paper onto your armature your Strawberry will begin to take shape. Never give up you can do this.

Once you have covered your Strawberry with paper mache they must completely dry. Lay them out in the sun if you can for faster drying, they will take at least 24 hours to dry depending on the size of your Strawberry.

Tip: If you feel that your sculpture is strong enough you can skip to step 3 painting your Strawberry sculpture.
Paper Clay or Paper Mache
You Choose

2nd Session
For this session you have two choices; paper clay or paper mache. Both mediums are wonderful and will render a perfect Strawberry sculpture. The 2 best benefits to using the paper clay vs. paper mache are time and toughness. Both recipes are on the channel; please do check them out.
We will walk through both paper mache and paper clay finishing process.

Paper Mache: Cover with 4 to 5 more layers of paper mache all at one time. Let it completely dry before moving on. If you're Strawberry does not seem tough enough add more paper mache (see step 1). After each session of paper mache your sculpture must completely dry before moving to your next step. Awesome, guys get excited to see your Strawberry take shape.

Quick Link to Paper Mache Paste Recipe: http://goo.gl/BH5lgM

Paper Clay: Cover the entire Strawberry with about 1/4 to 1/2 inch layer of paper clay, doing one side at a time and letting that completely dry. Apply the homemade paper clay with your hands and smooth with paper mache paste, butter knife, etc. You can let your paper clay dry for about 6 or more hours and then smooth more with paste.

The size of your Strawberry will determine how long it will take to dry. A large Strawberry will take approximately 3 to 4 days to dry, the paper clay takes longer to dry than you think so don't rush it, wait an extra day before painting for caution.

You can use a fan, the sun, and the oven on the lowest temperature it will allow. Our oven can go as low as 145 degrees Fahrenheit, which is a perfect temperature for slowly drying your paper clay, we will place it in the oven over night and pull out doesn't do well in the closed oven when off. Also, if you heat your clay to fast it can turn dark brown in the oven which is okay because you will cover with primer paint.

Paper Clay Recipe: http://goo.gl/xoTFbJ

Question: Can I skip the paper mache and put paper clay directly onto my armature?
Answer: Yes, yes you can if your armature can support the weight of the paper clay without the support of the paper mache strips and paste.

If you need once the Strawberry has dried you can lightly sand with sandpaper and wipe off before painting.

3. Paint Your Strawberry Sculpture
Paint a white coat of primer paint on your Strawberry this will give you a white canvas for painting. We use white flat interior house paint to prime the surface our sculptures.
Once the primer coat as dried paint with acrylics anyway you like. I begin with the darkest color and work my way to the lightest color shade. Color is fun and you can't mess up, anything goes.

Let all you paint completely dry before sealing with varnish.

Varnishing (Protecting)
You must seal your paper mache pieces with varnish for protection against moisture. Brush on 3 to 4 coats of varnish and let it completely dry. We brush on Polycrylic Minwax at the studio to varnish all our art. The gloss enhances our paint job. Follow the instructions on your varnish to apply.

Strawberry Wrap Up

This is just one way to make a delicious huge Strawberry sculpture, hope you will use it to create your own Strawberry sculpture and of course share with the studio.
Thank you for stopping by the studio please subscribe before you leave and have a great day.

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