Papier mache shoe rack

About 10 years ago I was a skint student and got fed up with having to buy new shoe racks because the kids and their friends kept destroying them. So I made one out of papier mache. It's still sturdy enough to take the weight of an adult standing on it. 

I started with stuffing toilet roll tubes with pva dampened newspaper for the sides which gave a nice bamboo like effect and covered cardboard sheets with pulp to make the shelves. 

I'll make more detailed posts on  making each piece in later blog posts. I've been trying to save up enough old toilet roll tubes to make something with and hopefully will post a video on you tube. Christmas activities are keeping me busy at the moment.

 

Papier mache furniture is increadably simple to make and very impressive. The only really challenging things are: 

1) getting hold of enough paper for large projects. 

2) time - waiting for everything to dry thoroughly takes a lot of patience

3) space, especially for large projects. 

4) remembering less is more - thinner layers take more patience but it's much easier to correct mistakes.

 

Apparently making it drove me to drink.