Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Paper Mache' Collaged Boxes - My Work

This last June when I posted these boxes that my students made, I forgot to include mine.  For almost all the assignments I teach in my Ceramics and 3-D classes, I put myself on the spot and demo an original piece of art so the kids can see the design process and the building techniques involved in each project.  I usually try to stay one day ahead of them.  But somewhere along the way, usually the last couple days as the kids are finishing their pieces I start to slack on mine and never finish.  Well, here's one that actually got finished!  Ooh hoo!!  
The requirements were to build a lidded box from cardboard scraps and hold it together with masking tape.  I decided to make a ring box (didn't end up doing the lid) with a separation between the rings I wear everyday and the other more decorative ones I choose to go with different outfits.  The kids learned how to apply a paper mache' coating so the box would be really strong (2 layers on each side).
The last requirement was to paper collage at least 2 special papers onto the box and overlap them.   I chose the tea bags I had been saving that had special stains on them.  I opened them up and saved the tea leaves for a unit in handmade paper, then I tore them up into smaller pieces.  The other paper I chose was a map of Central and Southern California, as far up and east as Porterville, as far north as San Luis Obispo, and as far south as San Diego, and ripped the names of all the towns my husband and I had traveled thru in the last 3 years as a couple.  We used Mod Podge to collage the papers and seal the boxes with.
So now I have this very special box that I keep all the beautiful rings that my husband and my mother have given me.

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