One Flew Under the Cuckoo's Nest

Spring was my mom’s favorite season and inspired the design of my paper mache shelf.  The shelf is hand made exclusively of paper mache and the birdcage is created from recycled wire.   After I created the shelf and birdcage, I assembled elements from my mom’s life that represent her passions.  To complete my sculpture, I used elements from mom’s life, including her baby photo. 

What I learned:  Thread does not photograph well.  I draped pink and yellow thread through the birdcage wires, but it was difficult for the camera to pick this up.  Next time, I’ll use a much heavier thread, perhaps embroidery thread.

As a side note to relatives:  I didn’t use grandpa’s cuckoo’s clock while making this piece.  I found a broken one at Value Village that I used.   

Paper Mache shelf

I’ve continued work on my paper mache shelf.  First, I added another layer of texture to complete the background.  As for the birdcage, I’m thrilled to say that I made it out of old wire I found in my parent’s garage.  Nothing goes to waste in my world.  After I put the bird in her birdcage, she was screeching at me to give her a party hat.  I had just the coil hat for her.  I think it added a nice whimsical touch.  Now, I need to work on the top shelf.  I’ll be adding elements from an old Cuckoo clock I found.  I’ll post pictures when I finish.

How to Make Your Own Paper Mache Shelf

I’ve been searching for a small vintage shelf for an assemblage piece I’m designing.  I’ve spent too much time looking for that perfect piece that was in my vision.  Then when I found a shelf that had the aesthetic I wanted, it was too expensive.  I had to come up with a new idea to get my shelf.  I decided to make it from paper mache.  After all, you can make almost anything with paper and glue.  Here are the pros:  I was able to make the shelf resemble the shelf in my sketch.  It was easy to make, light weight, and free by using paper and glue I already had.  It did take a few days to make it, but that was a small investment in time when compared to the time I spent shopping for a shelf.

After I finished the paper mache shelf, I painted it with brown acrylic paint.  I allowed the brown paint to dry and covered the shelf, section by section, with Folk Art Crackle Medium.  I followed the crackle medium with an off-white acrylic paint.  The beauty of this process is that the crackle medium camouflaged the paper mache finish.  I then glued scrapbook paper on the inside and have just started adding texture.

       Here's my first layer of texture I added to the scrapbook paper using a stencil