Paper Mache Greek Bowl

My daughter has completed her latest TOG craft project.  She chose to make a bowl out of paper mache.  Overall, it was a good experience and she did a nice job.  There are a few changes that I would make if we were to do it again.

The first step was to chose a bowl. That was also our first mistake. I should have guided her to a more rounded bowl, like a mixing bowl. We spread the outside of the bowl with Vaseline to help the paper mache to come off after it dried. Then she dipped strips of newspaper in a paste made with 1 part flour and 2 parts water. The strips were smoothed over the surface of the mold.

This is the completed bowl. Probably a little too soggy!

This is the paper mache removed from the bowl. As you can see, there are some rips in it, because it was very difficult to remove. As I mentioned before, I think a different shape of bowl would have helped.

We added some more strips to piece together the rips in the bowl. Then I put it upside down on the top of a candle to dry. I think this was a mistake too. It dried with wavy edges because it didn’t dry on the same shape that it did the first time.

Here is the bowl with a coat of red paint.

And the final, decorated product.