Browsing around VivaTerra, just now… I seem to have been swept away by a pair of wild ceramic lace horses.

Look at those stocky strong figures — don’t they remind you of cave drawings, somehow? And then the dainty lace decoration on the surface of the sculptures is such a striking contrast to the primitive figures of the horses.

“In the Thai zodiac,” says the VivaTerra blurb, “horses represent independence, confidence, and inquisitiveness — engaging qualities that these animals also express along with a mythical beauty all their own.” Oh yes.

These horses are ceramic figurines, and I can’t tell how the lace is applied… but now I’m thinking, is there a papier mache project here? Papier mache horses, dark colours and solid forms, with a final layer of gently smoothed-on vintage lace (old tablecloth in the bottom drawer, maybe?), all delicate and surprising.

Dig out a pair of those earrings you never wear anymore — the ones that were a total mistake X years ago — and give them a funky new life as fool-the-eye faux stones. The secret is papier mâché, and the method is quick and easy.

You might even get a bored pre-teen girl to put down her phone for this craft project!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• one pair of hook-type earrings you won’t want to wear again (or jewelry hardware from a craft store, if you want to make new earrings from scratch)



• old newspaper, paper towel or tissue paper
• plastic wrap
• a small paint brush
• old rags or a sponge
• 2 Tbsp white household glue, mixed with 2 Tbsp water to make a thin paste
• craft paints (in the rock-like natural colors of your choice)
• water-based clear sealer (preferably with a low-gloss or satin finish)

Step One: Papier Mâché

Cover your work table with newspaper or plastic, for easy clean-up, and wind a piece of plastic wrap around the earring hooks to protect them from paste and paint.

Rip a sheet of newspaper into small strips, as narrow as you can get them and no more than 4 inches long. Tear the paper rather than cutting it so the edges will be soft and uneven. Wet a strip of newspaper in the paste, then run it between your fingers to remove the excess paste. It should be thoroughly moistened but not dripping or soggy.

Wrap the pasted newspaper strip around the dangling pendant of one of those old earrings. Repeat with the other earring. Continue to work back and forth from one earring to the other as you add more strips of pasted paper, building up a form that looks like it could be a small rock. The two earrings don’t need to be absolutely identical in shape and size — no two rocks are exactly alike in nature — but you’ll want them to be fairly similar.

If the phone rings in the middle of your work, no worries! Just cover your saucer of paste with a piece of plastic wrap until you’re ready to get back to it. (If it starts to dry out, add a few drops of warm water.) And it won’t hurt if you let your project dry out a little between layers — that just means a quicker drying time at the end.

When you’ve got a couple of rock shapes you’re happy with, tear off small pieces of tissue paper or paper towel, just barely moisten them with paste, and smooth them on to your earring rocks as the final layer. This is just to soften any glaring lines left by the newspaper strips and add a bit of a finer texture, which helps to make the faux rocks look more realistic.

Gently remove the plastic wrap from the metal hooks, so it doesn’t get permanently glued on, and set the earrings aside to dry. I like to dry my papier mâché projects on an old wire cookie-cooling rack to let the air circulate freely around them. Don’t rush the drying time! A couple of days in a warm place is the minimum it’ll take to dry them all the way through to the center.

Step Two: Faux Finish

Here’s where we get really creative! A faux rock paint finish may look a bit challenging at first, but it’s hard to do it “wrong” — have you ever noticed what a wonderful variety of rocks and stones there are in nature? Gather up a few that attract you, perhaps, and bring them in to your work space for inspiration.

Acrylic craft paints are great because they’re inexpensive, they dry very quickly, and you can wash up with soap and water. Still, it’ll make life easier if you protect your work surface and wrap the earring hooks in plastic wrap again before you start painting.

Plan to use three different colors of paint, if possible. For some reason I can’t begin to explain, three is the magic number! Two colors just doesn’t look real, and four or more colors can look fussy. (To replicate my local dark-red stones, for example, I chose Americana paints in Lamp Black, Dark Chocolate, and Rookwood Red.)

I find it helpful to start with a base coat of your darkest color to quickly hide the newspaper print. Once the papier mâché rocks are all one solid color, somehow it’s much easier to imagine how they might best be finished.

Next, put a dot of your lightest, brightest color of paint onto the corner of a sponge or rag. Add it here and there over the dark base coat, wiping off or dabbing on just as the spirit moves you. Again, work back and forth between the two earrings so they’ll end up looking like the same kind of rocks.

Wiped with a rag, some paint will naturally collect in small hollows and rough areas on your faux rocks. This gives a far more natural effect than a smooth application would, so it works to your advantage!

Finally, add a tiny touch of the third (mid-range) color here and there, using the smallest paintbrush you have. Sometimes I use the tip of a toothpick or bamboo skewer for very fine lines, like the speckles or fine veins that you’ll often see in real rocks. When you’re happy with how your faux rock earrings turned out, apply a light coat of clear sealer to protect the paint finish.

Take the plastic wrap off the hooks, now, and try your earrings on. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results — and if not, you can always paint over!

The search for little boxes continues…

Tonight, a fleeting heart-shaped hint on Etsy’s front page — I caught it by the merest of lucky accidents! — leads to an artist who’s new to me, Paula Manning-Lewis…

Voila!
Two lovely light-hearted boxes in acrylic paints on papier mache, as well as the stash-sized Red and Brown Heart Spiral trinket box in oil paints on wood. (I really like the way the lines of paint almost suggest a fantasy wood grain, counterpoint to the wood itself.)

PaulaM‘s work has a free and easy southwest feel to it, at least to me from my northern perspective — is it the flowing line, or the palette of warm clear sunrise/sunset colours?

About the artist:

I currently work mainly in watercolor, but I have worked with a variety of mediums. I like to paint a fairly large variety of subject matter but stick mainly to southwest landscapes, portraits and my newest fascination, abstract expressionism! Recently, my main theme has been peace.

PaulaM lives and creates in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she co-founded the Seventh Mountain Artists group.