When the number of active covid cases has been high during the pandemic, I have ordered art supplies and groceries either for delivery or curbside pickup. And during these 2! years, I have accumulated MANY paper bags and paper used to cushion items in the mail. For a long while I kept thinking about recycling the paper by making some papier maché masks as I did years ago. But I didn’t follow through on this until recently. However, finally I have made the beginnings of a leap. I’ve made a model out of plasticene, paste out of flour and water and have collected some of the brown paper ready to tear and paste. I’ve done two trial runs, have worked out some technical problems and will be on my way this week.
Here’s some masks I made in the late 1990s. I used Japanese papers as the finishing layer on the masks. They are all small ones, modelled on stones and plasticene.
Arts of May 