And so it begins...

Today I walked down to the school carting the first papersaurus. It was a mile long walk with a weighted, meter high dinosaur. By the time I arrived I'd received more than a few looks and comments. It feel a bit strange being one dinosaur down. At least it's one less to trip over.

The kids are aged 7/8 and they loved it. They've named him Terry the recyclesaurus [I'm not sure how I should spell that and spell check doesn't seem to have any worthwhile suggestions]. It's a good start to Paper Reloved. I've had a request for another one so I might try to make headway with one tonight.

Or I might just try to relax and have an early night for a change...

Making paper bricks

 It took me 3 bricks to kind of get the hang of using the brick maker. Working out how much pulp to use and how wet it needs to be is still a learning curve I've yet to master. Filling the log maker about an inch from the top with pulp that's still dripping wet but dry enough to stick in clumps seems to work best.

The pink brick is coloured with red tissue paper and the green one with food dye. They're both dry now and added to my collection of 13 bricks in total. They are pretty unbreakable once dry.

I've yet to wet one and break it down properly to see how easy it is. I'm still enjoying playing with a new toy and building up a brick collection. Fingers crossed that I'll eventually have enough to use them for teaching!

Gifts on the doorstep!

We got back from our trip away to find a bag of shredded paper on the doorstep! I can't imagine most people would be very happy about this but as far as I'm concerned the sign of a good friend is someone who dumps their shredded paper rubbish on me.

 The immediate plan is to boil, blend and put it in a paper log maker to make paper bricks. I'm not quite sure how well this will work out as I haven't tried using the log maker yet - it's a brand new toy! The paper bricks I'll use as part of the papersaurus poo project. I figure younger kids can play with them and build things with them as part of 'learning' about recycling. Plus I get to buy a new toy to play with (and possibly regret).

I'm also saving up any junk mail or other paper I can get my hands on so that I can use it to build a new sofa.At its best my old one looks like this. It's no longer all that comfortable. I inherited it and never liked it that much in the first place. It is a good bed settee which has come in handy.

I never liked the colour or the shape. Beige flowery patterns and big bulky furniture just isn't very me. I'm waiting for someone to help me shift it outside so that I can get the council to pick it up for the tip. Although I am starting to consider taking it apart and throwing a bit of paper love it's way to make it into something I do like having in the house. Buying a new sofa I actually like just isn't within my budget.

But stripping this one down to modernise it just might be... Besides one day I might actually get around to selling all the papier mache furniture I've made already and we still need somewhere to sit!

Papersaurus poo project update!

It's half term and I'm trying to mas-produce large dinosaurs in my little and already quite full home! It's taken a fair few hours and I'm already starting on my third.

 Because it's the half term holiday we've had lots of visitors and we're planning a couple of days away. It will be nice to stop gluing and sticking for a while.

The first one isn't quite finished yet. It's got counterweights in its legs and tail and it's all been reinforced on the inside with pulp. There's still a few finishing touches missing including a catch for that hatch at the back and a little more strengthening for when it's played with.

We'll see how sturdy they are when they're properly tested by children. Sometimes no amount of reinforcing and preparation can do much against the destruction they can cause. I'm working hard to get the project up and running as soon as possible after Easter so we can test a few of these babies out!

They are completely handmade from paper and PVA. I think it's taken at least 4 newspapers for the base and 2-3 litres of PVA. I'm still working out the amount of hours and everything they take to make everything else. I think it's taken about 25 hours in total to build the first one but that could be off by few hours!

My excuse for not being more organised when it comes to recording these things is the lack of a proper studio/workspace [hopefully one day!] and being distracted by children. I'm up late tonight finishing off because I had to move everything over so that our guinea pigs could take over the living room whilst they were cleaned out. The house is a tip. I'm tired and well overdue a couple of days off!

I'll try to get some better pictures up with my next post. These are just a small sample of the great many I regularly send my long suffering friends on watsapp! The ones I hurriedly took on my camera were overexposed.

I really should go to bed instead of waffling on!

Papersaurus poo project

I thought I would combine my need for paper with encouraging primary school children to recycle. The plan is to install paper bins in the shape of dinosaurs - hence the papersaurus and use that paper with the children as well as on other projects. At the moment I'm still in the process of building the first paper bin.

 As it will involve multiple small children 'feeding' it paper it needs to be strong and counterweighted so it's taking a while for each layer to dry. I aimed to have the first one built a while ago but keep being distracted by other projects!

At the moment it's propped up on a glue bottle with its legs tied together whilst they dry. I'd swear I don't have the patience for this if I hadn't completed hundreds of other papier mache projects!

If the whole paper bin plan falls through it will make an awesome toy box for my youngest nephew.