My crafting a future boys group ages 7-12 have been busy making some paper mache birds! I have to say, this project was a bit challenging for them, but not a soul complained about the fact that during their creation they didn't really look like birds ! (And some still need a bit of help, shhhh.) The blue bird above was made by yours truly, and even I need some more practice to actually perfect this craft, which I'm hoping will happen, as there really is nothing quite so sweet as little paper mache birds that one can use in so many ways: cake toppers, wedding cake toppers, to decorate some bare branches, etc. etc.
One of my sweet students, David, one of the youngest, grasped the concept that I've been gently trying to communicate to all of my students: perfection is not what we're striving for!
All in all, I'd certainly recommend trying out this craft, especially when there's lots of time during the summer, and you can find a great tutorial, and much better results over at that artist woman, and her post paper mache birds. I just realized that she actually uses a solution of glue and water, while we used a flour and water solution, which was really quite messy and somewhat difficult to work with for such small pieces.
And her birds stand up, we weren't quite successful at getting that part right....maybe next time.
Enjoy and let me know how it goes!
