Effortless Strawberry to Hang on Your Wall

Finished Juicy Paper Mache Strawberry and Artist Charisse

We will show you how to use recycled newspaper to make a giant juicy paper mache Strawberry to hang.

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 giant wall 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

Giant Juicy Paper Mache Strawberry Armature

Begin by cutting an outline of your strawberry onto cardboard, basically a heart shape with a stem. Set this aside.

Wade and crumple up sheets of newspaper, glue them into place on top of your cardboard outline. Continue to wade up the newspaper and building up the shape of your strawberry, creating a nice fat juicy strawberry.

Slide your Strawberry shape with your newspaper in place into a plastic bag and tape off tight. Use your masking tape to define the shape of your strawberry.

Leaf: To form the leaves of cut cardboard into the shape you like and slide onto your strawberry close to the stem. Use tape to hold into place. We used wire to give our leaves support.

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.

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 below.

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.

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.

Now it's time to let your strawberry dry completely in the sun or in front of the fan for 2 to 3 days. It is important that it completely dries before moving on.

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

Painting Juicy Paper Mache or Paper Clay Strawberry

Paint a white coat of primer paint on your Strawberry giving 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.

4 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 use Polycrylic Minwax at the studio to varnish all our art, we like how the gloss enhances our paint job. Follow the instructions on your varnish to apply.