I was just looking back at the absolute TON of information that is stored on this website!

More than 1300 topics by hundreds of posters from all over the world.  Someone comes up with an idea, and others chime in to change it, improve upon it, and take it in other directions and to new heights.

And what the various artists in the gallery have done with it is incredible!

Just at a glance:

BASIC PAPIER MACHÉ:  just paper and glue.  Newspaper, copier paper, tissue paper, handmade paper.  Inexpensive, it can be taken from absolutely simple to creations that are difficult to believe are made from just paper.  You can use strips or pulp, or a combination of both.  You can make practically anything you can imagine, from tiny paper fairies to huge realistic boulders, Easter Island figures, boats and giant teacups.

ADHESIVES:  organic, food flours, chemical, water-soluble, water-resistant

ARMATURES & SUPPORT FORMS: boxes, taped/slotted/folded cardboard, taped/crushed/bundled aluminum cans, plastic or metal rods, wire mesh, reel wire,  balloons, wadded up newspaper, carved/taped styrofoam and building insulation foam, expanding spray foam, inflated plastic forms, egg cartons, plastic bottles

MOLDS:  bowls and other dishes, bottles, commercial molds from candymaking size up to those designed for concrete, rigid and flexible; one-part, two-part, multiple-parts, latex, homemade plaster molds, beach balls, the round end of a large propane tank, store mannequins

MOLD RELEASE AGENTS:  plastic wrap/cling film, silicone spray or liquid, vegetable oil, Murphy's Oil Soap, wax

SURFACE TREATMENT:  Ways to smooth the surface, rough it up or make it look like something else; real or pseudo-mosaic; fringed paper or fibers that look like hair or feathers, or real hair or feathers; sand or small pebbles, broken eggshells;

SURFACE COLORATION:  Acrylic paint, oil paints, alcohol paints, spray paints, watercolors, stains, colored tissue paper, colored sand, spattered paint colors on a neutral background; related or contrasting colors daubed on with a sponge

It is simply incredible what creative people have done with just some paper, glue and a wonderful imagination!

Sue

Oh, Patraw, how awful!  Bundled up like an Eskimo so you can hardly move or grip the blower.  I hope (at least) you were in a basement, out of the wind, and not crawling around under the house in the cold and dark.

Maybe the rest of winter will be more mild..... Oh, wait!  It's only January 2nd!  Blech!

Sue

Going down to the library to do your work? What dedication!

I keep saying we should get rid of the oil stove and get a wood stove, but nobody listens to me.  There's literally a forest across the street, so we'd never lack for fuel (not to mention our barn that's literally filled, wall-to-wall, and to the ceiling, with lumber from tearing down the garage last year when the roof on that structure caved in from the weight of the snow). 

I don't use water in my papier mache and work small, so my messes are of the dry variety (I use a piece of scrap paper or plastic to spread my glue on my strips, so that I don't get the library's tables sticky or dirty) and relatively small in scope.  If I had a big bowl of wet papier mache paste and my hands coated with the stuff, I expect my local librarians would have kittens too.

Well, we can all burn our PM projects to keep warm, although, in my case, that won't amount to much heat due to their small size.