A charity shop papier-mâché kit find motivated me to try bowl making… the kit suggested moulding the paper pulp provided around semi inflated balloons but my balloons were perished (the kit had probably been lingering in the shop for a while ) so I wrapped two bowls in cling film before moulding on the moistened pulp.

Pulp was much faster and less messy than tearing up squares of paper and pasting with glue as we did at school.

however, it was harder to get a level surface with pulp and when dry was rock hard, so when I tried to pull the bowls from the mounds they lost a little of their shape.

metallic finish paint to the rescue! Haven’t a clue about brand or colours as it came in the kit, but thre blues and the gold were lovely and I have saved the dregs for painting another box one day

Conclusion, my dexterity is not good enough to gift these bowls but I am glad I tried my £1.50 experiment. if I repeated the exercise would decoupage the finished bowls to distract from the flaws.