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Thursday, May 19, 2011

Paper Pulp Pictures

This lesson plan is an idea I tried at one of the National Art Education Conferences.  This is such a fun project because it gives you the experience of paper pulp painting, but without the blenders or mess.  One thing I will be sure to remind the kids of next time is to be sure to tear the paper into really small pieces.  The larger pieces fell apart.  We coated these with a modge podge after to secure them completely.  We also read one of Denise Fleming's books.  She creates her illustrations from paper pulp.  *** EDIT:  I need to add that you should make sure that the tissue paper is NON-BLEED.  If it bleeds, the colors will all run together.  It should say whether it is bleeding.  If it doesn't say "bleeding" it should be non-bleed. 


This is how we set up the tables for the kids.

Use a canvas cloth underneath as a place for your work.

Rip up tissue paper in tiny, tiny pieces.  Dip in water and then press very firmly to the canvas.  The goal is to push the fibers of the tissue paper together.  When they dry, they will re-bond.  Do not use large chunks of tissue paper!

After your whole picture is complete, let dry for one or two days.  If there is a lot of water on the picture, you might need to set up a fan to dry more thoroughly.
After the images were dry, we glazed a Mod Podge layer over the top.  I have heard that you can also use a little bit of glue mixed with the water (while you are making the picture).  The Mod Podge allowed the piece to be sealed and secure.

Then, I hot glued each project to a piece of white foam board for a lovely backing.





This post is sponsored by SantaFeUniversity.edu, offering art degree programs.

18 comments:

  1. Wow I love this project! Their results are beautiful! How many classes does it take and how long to dry?

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  2. Thanks! I love them too! It took about 3 forty-minute class periods, some kids finished faster of course. The drying was a bit of a problem. I had them on the drying rack for about 24 hours and they still hadn't dried!! So, then I aimed a fan directly at them and they dried within a couple hours.

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  3. What a stunning project! And I love the simple directions and appropriateness for multi-level learning! I featured your post at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/LivingMontessoriNow

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  4. Thanks Deb for sharing my post! :)

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  5. I love this idea.
    The texture and colors are beautiful.

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  6. Can you share the directions with me? I think these look awesome and I do hate blending the pulp up!

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  7. Beyond cool, those look simply amazing! Thanks for sharing

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  8. These are really beautiful.
    The heart is my favorite.
    I will try using tissue paper with the older students next time.

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  9. This seems like it could have a lot of possibilities, thanks for posting it.

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  10. This is great - I'd love to try with kiddos at my studio. But I don't have canvas swatches, what else could I use?

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  11. The texture is fascinating. Very beautiful and creative ways to make textures.

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  13. Maybe wax paper would work or aluminum foil...?

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