My first attempts at papier-mâché involved old flyers and a flour-and-salt-based paste. The newsprint was rather crude and clumsy to work with - or maybe it was that my hands were clumsy and that I didn't want to follow the traditional methods of chewing the paper first! I incorporated upcycled (i.e. I didn't through that wrapping out) tissue paper into the final layers of the keys. I liked using it so much that eventually I made keys entirely out of white tissue. Some kinds of this paper worked better than others - the "shiny" stuff resisted the paste and remained stiff and papery, some of the tissue was yellowish and some was bluish (my favourite) when it dried; the best for me was the soft tissue that broke down easily in the paste and become more like a paper clay (this was also the bluish stuff). Here is the last batch of paper keys in this ten keys ten ways series:
Key 918 is from Template 5; painted with black gesso and highlighted with silver acrylic paint.
Key 919 (Template 6) is painted with black gesso and Payne's Gray acrylic paint.
Key 920 (Template 7) is painted with white gesso, then painted with Alizarin Crimson acrylic paint, and then painted with black gesso, and a bit more of the crimson, and then some more gesso...took some time to find the finish on this piece!
Key 921 (Template 8) is painted with black gesso and my very favourite halo blue gold Lumiere paint. This paint looks green or blue or gold depending on how the light hits it. It is actually a fabric paint but so far has worked well for my non-fabric art activities.
Key 922 (Template 9) is painted with white gesso and black gesso on one side; white gesso, Alizarin Crimson, black gesso, and silver metallic paint on the other side.
Key 923 (from Template 10) is painted with black gesso and gold Lumiere paint.
I'm appreciating these keys more now that they are finished. I think they turned out OK!
