Interesting Facts

Here are a few ...

1

In 1800 an Irish man called Issac Weld from County Cork made a boat from papier mache. In it he sailed on the Lakes of Killarney.

2

In 1833 Charles Frederick Bielefeld built ten prefabricated cottages and a ten roomed villa which he transported all the way to Australia! This “instant village” was designed to be assembled in just four hours for a client and his party to occupy on arrival.

3

Up until the 1970’s papier mache was used as casting moulds in the making of rotary letterpresses for printing our daily newspaper!

4

An ancient ceremony that still goes on today takes place in Duragupuja, India. Images are made of papier mache of the Goddess “Durga” and worshipped for ten days. Afterwards, in a candlelit midnight ceremony with a drum roll, they are cast into the river Ganges.

5

Masks have been made from papier mache since Paleolithic times.

6

Inspired by papier mache dolls and other items, a French physicist Louis Thomas Jerome Auzoux (1797 – 1880) experimented with anatomical papier mache models. In 1822 when he received his medical degree, he gave his first anatomical figure of a male to the Paris Academy of Medicine. Five years on he opened a factory to manufacture human, veterinary and botanical papier mache models.

7

The massive spinning papier mache globe made in Edinburgh for the Harry Potter film fetched an amazing £17,750 at auction!

8

A paper mache church erected in Norway survived 37 years before finally being demolished.

9

In 1883 a watch was made entirely from papier mache in Germany. The Dresden watchmaker claimed it was durable and matched it's metal equivalent in terms of performance.

10

Gong but not forgotton! Do you remember the giant gong at the start of J Arthur Rank films? Believe it or not, that gong was made of papier mache! This fact was let slip to close friends by the gong-striker, Kenneth Richmond who recently died in his 80s.