Make Beautiful Sculptures and Masks with Paper Mache and Paper Mache Clay
Sculpture and Mask Patterns
For a fast, easy start, check out my patterns for animal masks and sculptures. No experience is required to create paper mache art that will be treasured for years.
Paper mache recipes.
You can find all the traditional paper mache paste recipes on this site, plus my famous paper mache clay recipe (and several new variations). You can always find the recipe you’re looking for under the Recipes link at the tip of the site.
Or download my free booklet, The 5 Best Recipes for Paper Mache.
Paper Mache Tutorials.
If you’re looking for an idea for your next paper mache project, we’ve got lots – there are over 480 tutorials and projects on this site, and more are added all the time. You’ll find them organized by category on the Blog-Art Library page.
If you have a particular project in mind, try the search bar. You will always find the search icon at the top of the site.
Paper Mache Community.
I’m Jonni Good, the creator of this site and the author of several best-selling sculpting books on amazon.com. You’ll find me on the Daily Sculptors page almost every day, along with many other friendly and supportive folks who love creating beautiful things with this exciting medium. Be sure to drop by and say “hi.” We’d love to meet you.
Diy Silicone Mold Texture Stamps for Clay
Use this cheap DIY silicone mold material to create texture stamps to use on your clay projects. My first experiment used my own recipe for air dry clay. It should also work very well with Apoxie Sculpt or any other epoxy clay, and might work with polymer clay.
Terry’s DIY Giraffe for a Baby’s Nursery
This baby giraffe was made with plywood and foam insulation from the DIY store, and covered with paper mache clay. The tutorial shows you how to make one for your baby.
How Pia Paints Glass Eyes for Her Animal Sculptures
This tutorial shows how inexpensive glass cabochons can be painted to create realistic eyes for paper mache animal sculptures.
How Lezlei Young Made Camilla, a Giraffe for Vacation Bible School
This paper mache tutorial shows you how to make a large giraffe. This post was written by Lezlei Young, who made the giraffe for Vacation Bible School.
Lifelike Horses Made with Wire and Paper Mache Clay
Our friend Maud Berglund, from Sweden, creates beautiful horse sculptures with wire, wire mesh, paper mache clay and bronze paint. She’s only been sculpting since
Cooked Flour and Water Paste Recipe – And When to Use It
In this video I show you how I make cooked flour and water paste for my paper mache sculptures, and when it’s worth extra time to make it.
hello, was wanting to know if you sale any of your large paper mache animals? if so please let me know your pricing. thank you.
Hi Araceli. No, I don’t sell my finished sculptures. I teach other people how to make their own. If you find a pattern or video on this site of a sculpture you’d like to have, but you don’t want to make it yourself, you might find someone at your local community college who could follow the instructions and make it for you.
Hi Jonni,
Love your site, and feeling totally inspired! I am just about to start my first project using your original paper clay recipe and hoping you may be kind enough to answer a couple of quick questions…
I’m using foil and hot glue for my armature, can I apply the paper clay directly on top? Will it adhere OK?
How long do you have to ‘work’ with the clay before it starts to dry?
Will fresh paper clay adhere to dry paper clay?
Tanks again for such a great and useful site 🙂
Hi Andy. Yes, paper mache clay can be applied directly to a crumpled foil armature. It dries slowly, unlike an epoxy clay that sets up in just a few minutes. You’ll have at least three hours before it dries too much to move it around. And yes, new paper mache clay sticks tight to dried paper mache clay. Have fun! 🙂
Thanks so much Jonni….. now to get started 🙂
Why does my paper clay dry with cracks? What ingredient would cause that? Thanks you’re the best!
Are you using the original paper mache clay recipe, or the smooth air dry clay recipe? And how thick are you applying it to your armature?
Just wanted to drop you a note to try you, you are an amazing teacher my husband created a large mouth bass using your techniques. I have attached a picture to show you. Not bad for his first time.
Hi Debbie. We would love to see your husband’s fish, but the image didn’t come through – probably because it was too big. Images need to be less then 250 KB to upload. If you don’t have image editing software, you can use this free online tool to make it smaller. I really hope you’ll try again – we want to see that fish! 🙂
WOW, is this really Jonni!? You’re a superstar to me, I have your videos playing in my my studio, a lot! Even gave you a shout out on Instagram when I finished a my first complete paper mache piece, So thanks!
Back to business…. I’m using the original recipe, but I added the food processing paper to the mix. Not the ripped paper.
Yes, it’s really me. 🙂
I had never heard of “food processing paper,” so I looked it up. Is your paper coated? That might be what’s causing the cracks, if the fibers can’t separate and become a part of the mixture. Have you tried using the toilet paper that’s called for in the original recipe?
In my earlier post I used the term “food processor paper”, Meaning, I blended the toilet paper to make it finer to use less flour.
Oh, I see – Then I don’t know why your paper mache clay would crack. Has anyone else had that problem?
If anyone is looking to make trees of any kind (especially for Halloween) I find using cement tubes from a big hardware store (like Home Depot) works really well. And the paper mâché sticks really well to it. They come in 8″ round up to (I believe) 24″ round tubes. Sturdy and strong.
Thanks for the tip, Carol. Do you have any photos of trees you’ve made that you could share with us?
I can’t seem to load the pic. sorry.
Is it less than 250 kb? If not, you can make it smaller here.
For a band prop we are going to attempt to make a 1/2 of a tree 12 foot long. We are looking for something that will set up fast and be durable for the 8 week season. Possibly getting rained on is also a concern. Please if you have any insight let me know
Hi Joe. You could make short sections of the trunk with a flat plywood back and semi-circles at regular intervals, maybe 24″ apart, along the length of each section. Cover the rounded parts with chicken wire, cover the wire with masking tape or duct tape, and cover the tape with paper mache or paper mache clay. The paper mache clay can be used to make bark textures, and it dries very strong.
The sections would need to bolt together when they’re used, and I have no idea how to do that. If you intend to have limbs on your tree, you might be able to make them with rebar that’s bent and attached to the trunk with some hardware you find at the DIY store. The rebar can be rounded out with crumpled foil. Smaller wires could be attached to the rebar and filled out with the foil for smaller side branches.
No paper mache recipe or product is waterproof, though. For short term display outside you can use marine varnish to seal the tree, and that will help if you bring it back inside to dry off between sessions. For long-term outdoor use, some people have good luck with Flex Seal, but other people have tried it and say it didn’t work at all. Good luck with your project – we would love to see it when it’s done.
tip…made some clay using “Platinum Patch” spackle. Says it weatherproof. CLay turned out really nice. We’ll see how it turns out ! Wish me luck. trying to make outdoor piece.
Good luck with it! We definitely want to know if it works, so please check back.