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.