4th Grade Weeks 6&7: Scrumptious Surfaces

It's all about surfaces this week as I show you how to finish up your 3-D sweets!! Let's look at some papier-mâché recipes and see how to use them on our forms!

These are my covered forms from last week. Quite the transformation! I ended up using 2 different mixtures on my cake, creating contrasting textures, to make it more realistic.

What kind of texture do you want your dessert to have? Should it be smooth, or rough and bumpy? Which of the recipes will work best for your sculpture's surface?

Let's learn a little bit more about papier mâché and how it works before we get started on our own pieces. Remember, this week is all about the surface, making our 3D forms look edible! Check out why papier-mâché is such a great option for finishing them up!

All about papier-mâché!

So, what is papier mâché exactly? Also spelled, paper-mache, it is a technique that uses paper and a paste to create a variety of objects. The method is named after the French term for “chewed paper,” which will makes sense when you see some of these recipes!

Papier-mâché is the layering of moistened paper and other materials onto a surface or form. The adhesive or paste used to wet the paper acts as a binding agent. As the paper dries, the outer shell hardens, which can then be painted and decorated. This craft is centuries old and is prized for its affordability and practicality. Essentially, all you need is recycled paper and a simple paste to create durable, 3-dimenionsal items. Check out the recipes below and see how you can create with papier-mâché to turn your 3D form into a delectable looking dessert! Choose whichever recipe works best for your sculpture!

Papier-mâché Paste Recipe 1

1 cup of boiling water

1/4 cup of flour

1/4 cup of room temp water

Parent Supervision Required!

Follow the video to make what I think is the strongest papier mâché paste

Papier-mâché Paste Recipe 2

1/2 cup of hot water

1/4 - 1/2 cup of flour

Only requires water be hot from the faucet. Click the video for instructions.

Papier-mâché Paste Recipe 3

1 part glue to 1 part water

maybe about 2-3 Tbsp of each

Great option if you don't have any flour. Glue is just a little more expensive.

Click on the video to see how it works!

Papier-mâché Pulp Recipe 3

Water

about 2 cups of newspaper bits

2 Tbsp Salt

2-3 Tbsp Glue

Toilet paper can be used as a substitute!

Fake Icing Recipe

Spackle

Paint (doesn't have to be white!)

Liquid Glue

I didn't measure mine! The paint and glue are used to stop the spackle from cracking as it dries. Check out the video!

All of the paper-mache paste recipes also use newspaper strips. If you don't have any newspaper for these try to find the thinnest paper that you can. Ads for stores that you usually get your junk mail are thinner than copy paper and would work really well. Tissue paper could work if you kept it in layers, but its a little thin and could fall apart.

If you don't have any of the ingredients used in the recipes above, what else do you have in your house that you can use? Model magic? Tape? Sand? There are many things you could use to create a different surface for your sweet sculpture. Let's make these look good enough to eat!!!

Finishing your sweet!

This will get messy! It would be an excellent project to work on outside if its nice and not too windy!! If you're working inside like I did make sure you put something down to work on to make clean up easier! Check out my videos below to see how I finished my sweets!

If you made a cake slice using my template and you created it with cardstock, I would not reccomend using the newspaper pulp or icing. I'm afraid that both would be too heavy and wet for the form to support.

If you made a newspaper form like I did for my donut, don't feel like you have to just use newspaper strips and paste. If one of the other techniques makes more sense you can use anything on a form like this just I did in my examples!

Reach out if you have any questions or need ideas for substitutions. Because this is a longer process and requires some extra prep this is for the next two weeks.

If you have time, add some color to it! Paint would be the easiest but you can also try out marker on some of the surfaces or maybe even use food dye in your recipes!

You could use puffy paint if you have some or even add real sprinkle to your

piece for some extra fun! What could

you use to create a cherry, or a candle? Have fun with it! When mine finishing drying I'll paint them and show you what I did to make them look life-like! Check out the larger than life artwork of Peter Anton by clicking on the photo. What did he do to his pieces to help make them so realistic?? How can his work inspire yours! Remember, adding color and details is optional, only do it if you time!

Share your final sweet with me on Seesaw in the new activity by the end of next week!