hot air balloon

Pulp love seat.

 It's taken me over two years to finish this chair. That includes me drop kicking parts of it into the cellar for six months at a time and threatening to throw it into the recycle bin. Oh, and having a bit of a cry when its legs were broken off whilst it was still drying, as well as when it was dropped and bent out of shape. I'm not sure yet how happy I am about it being part of our home yet. I've spent the last few months working on it almost daily and I'm a bit sick of the sight of it.

Like all the papier mache furniture I've made it's not turned out anything like I originally envisioned. It was meant to be a computer chair and rotate on wheels. Unfortunately I couldn't find a chair base that would take the weight of two adults.

Apparently it's technically a love seat as it's too small to be a two seater sofa but too big to be an ordinary chair!

The texture is that of most modern pulp furniture. It wasn't going to be red either. I was offered a box of old music sheets from someone's garage but haven't received them yet so I used up some red scrap paper left over from piñata making.

It's not quite finished yet. It needs some mould proofing (in this case I'll be spraying it with natural antibacterial agents) and then varnishing. In the mean time it's a usable seat in a house where there's often a fight for furniture!

I am already working on other pulp furniture projects but I'm struggling to get hold of any more shredded paper. I like the feeling of knowing the materials I've used have been rescued from a landfill. So far I've used around 15 litres of PVA and 15 bags of shredded paper.

I'm still active!

I haven't been on here for a while. I've even let several of the websites lapse. I like a challenge. I can make any kind of piñata. I miss the buzz of agreeing to make something and then getting off the phone only to think 'what the hell have I done!', and then creating something amazing. I've been learning how to make paper, books, then seeded paper and then buying a printer which I could then print onto that seeded paper with. I've also been teaching classes.

Then I started on marbling, and quilling/filigree as well as expanding my knowledge of origami (which I keep using to entertain random children) and other papercrafts. Until I filled in a few 3d papier mache canvases. Then expanded that to playing with fabrics and wax projects (including furniture polish) before starting on my current thing.

I've rescued bags upon bags of shredded paper from landfills and I'm turning it into furniture. So far I've almost finished a chair for my youngest daughter (photos on their way), a new chassis lounge style chair and a shelving unit. I'm hoping to have some sort of exhibition or display once I've finished. Although I'll probably need a couple more pieces. I'm onto my 4th blender, since the last one started to smoke and give off that electrical burning smell...

So basically I'm working on expanding, learning, facilitating learning as well as keeping up with all of the other things in my life. I thought I'd add a post here since I've not had any on-line presence for a while.

I'll neaten this up and add pictures eventually.

Papier mache furniture

This week I've finally got around to working on my papier mache furniture again. They don't look like much at the moment but bare with me, there's still a long way to go.

The picture below is a childrens chair that started off life as an extra shelf on the shoe rack. I'm not quite sure where I'm going with it, or how it will look once it's finished, it's got a lot of drying to do before I have to worry about that though!

The picture above is a large computer chair, in theory. I'm waiting to see how comfortable it is with cushions on before I decide whether or not to replace the sofa. If they're good I'll list them on ebay and etsy but as it's taken months of work, several broken blenders and multiple liters of PVA I'm not sure if they'll sell at the price I'll be charging! It's not worth me selling for less. They were originally made for me.

Teapot piñata

We have been asked to make a few mad hatters tea party themed piñatas, as well as Alice's adventures in wonderland ones! From mad hats to giant pocket watches to tea pots. I have to say that the Russian Samovar inspired tea pot was my favourite. One day I'm going to own a Samovar of my very own! We got extremely distracted by looking at pictures of them!

The more western style tea pot was a bit of a rush job made within two days for a local event. We've made lots of better teapots but often missed opportunities to take advantage of them. The best one was a prize at the pinatafest but unfortunately our designated photographer was distracted by the entertainment.





The Samovar inspired teapot was actually flown to Russia for a party there. The buyer sent some wonderful pictures of their party (Although we'd all prefer to have been there in person!).

That dream where you're pulling things out of your mouth!

I've been having a recurring dream where I'm talking to someone and I feel a hair in my mouth that's stuck in my throat. It's like a magician doing a trick with hankies when I try to remove it. The one where they remove one and there's miles and miles of them, one following the other, each a different colour. When I researched it I found that similar dreams are common.

I do believe in dream interpretation. Not that this signifies some external message like a tall, dark handsome man is going to appear in my life shooting rainbows whilst riding on a unicorn. Or some Freudian interpretation involving phallus and patriarchal envy - when it comes to things like that my subconscious is like me - direct with no messing around! Nor am I a Jungian - I believe he is over simplistic. I do believe however that dreams are a way of the subconscious expressing repressed thoughts and desires. Or perhaps an inner voice that's trying to warn, explain or tell us something that we already understand deep down but aren't dealing with in a conscious way. It may or may not be a useful message, but that message is unique and individual not something where an answer can be found straight out of a dream dictionary - especially if that dictionary comes from a different culture, with a different interpretation of symbols etched into their internalised culture.


Anyway for me this dream means that I am holding back too much. Repressing and holding onto things rather than working them out. I'm spread so thin that I don't know where to start letting it all out. Maybe standing out on a hill top and screaming my lungs out in a primal scream or the eternal yes would be a nice start but I don't have time for that. So instead I'm starting by writing this post. It feels like the wrong place to have a personal cathartic splurge. Which meant that perhaps posting here is the perfect act to breaking down those barriers and rules which are holding me in place, if that makes any sense.

Here is a public written promise to myself that every day I will try to find a way to release, or work on releasing some of that pent up passion, energy, those thoughts and feelings I keep to myself, or edit and to deal with the things I bury. Here's to day one!

Mexican themed wedding card box

Here are a few pics of a recent piñata for a Mexican themed wedding.It's actually technically a wedding card box rather than a piñata but we were impressed all the same!

The label on the front was a last minute idea that we hung loosely around it's neck in case the bride and groom decided they'd rather not keep it and wanted to remove it.