Original paper mache clay : my findings : tutorial

hi
dear all



You can see that I have been posting paper mache ( now on I will use "pm")crafts,which is a new thing I am experimenting with.I am totally enjoying this versatile medium-and many ideas  are popping now and then in my head ,I hope to try my hands on those one by one...

As you know -the site ,ULTIMATE PAPER MACHE.COM have been a great help to the pm beginners-I have got all the necessary basic infos from this wonderful site ,Thank you JONNI, and another site that I want to mention about is ,actually its a forum ,called PAPER- MACHE UK. here other pm enthusiasts are very helpful,they help you out as soon as you post your questions -thank you all the people for you help..

Internet is a magical place  where you will get all sorts of inspiration-often artists share their techniques with all of us,thanks to them..but I have felt ,different people has different types of process/techniques --what i meant is ,what works for me ,it may not work for others-the type of finishing I like ,it may not be the liking of others -hence I tried to work on/find out different processes just to see which one works for me..right?

Kashmir(INDIA)has a great legacy of making PM crafts for centuries...they have excelled in it,personally I think nobody can beat their craftsmanship.the hard work and craftsmanship they put in it is ,just amazing..I started my journey of pm from here , by understanding the master-class..

you will get many sites which will tell you briefly about this process.I don't expect sites to spell it word by word,after all its their trade secret..what "PICTURE" I got from studying different texts is ,in a nut shell

paper,mostly waste paper is soaked in water for 3/4 days till the fibers are disintegrated,then its pounded in a stone vessel,sun dried,mixed with a glue ( made of rice and glue boiled in water=here "starch" is a point),
then these people use moulds ,first the mould is covered with ordinary paper ,then this pm clay paste is applied,after it dries up,moulds are cut with a saw along the center line ,the paper object (now cut in half ) are joined by a thick glue -SARESH,a kind of a laquare  (natural gum +sugar)


then ,its time to smooth out the surface ,they use a burnt brick or a pumice stone ,then a layer of SARESH is applied ,again  on which chuna (pumice) paste /glue+gypsum is applied .again the smoothing  occurs,finally tissu or butterpaper is used to protect the surface .

I bought a pm kashmiri chrishtmas ball,just to see my self what is used inside...

here you see ,I have cut the ball in half ,lets see whats inside..

now you can see , where the craftsman had cut .

now more closer look

here we can see the SARESH,the glue/laquare ( all purpose)

its a rubbery and brown in colour,very hard..here i want to mention that ,the thickness of this ball is around 1/4 inch( approximate)
quite hard, even if I squeeze it in my hand ,happens nothing, I think its the starch  of rice and glue makes its super-duper hard/stiff

now its time to see what types of paper or pm clay they use,
paper that was used in moulds initially is a normal news paper ,very cheap...
after that the actual pm clay is layered,I must say I could not understand/recognize a single particle of that mass,it is so well mutilated that its hard to believe that it has a paper in it.

during my research time at net ,I read some where wood particles(saw dust ) cloth-fibre and other mislenious stuffs are used to make the pm clay solid,u know what I mean....as write this blog, I feel that I should have seen it under the microscope...anyway, actully the stuff that has been used for making this clay is mixed with rice starch and glue in such a high temperature  ,that its totally lost its character....lets move on

just imagine the craftmanship..

you may ask ,why I did this elaborate study?it was done to get inspired by masters..I want to get this same effects in my papaer mache crafts -thats it...

hence my research continues...

on my next post ,I wish to share some of the home made paper clay recipe ,which may /may not help you get the porcelain smooth finish ..

stick with me to know about my next experiment...

lets explore..

enjoy