Kashmiri Papier-Mache

Time

Art & Crafts

4 3 2 1 Early-Mid Stages

Benefits

Participants

Group Activity

What you need

Newspaper
PVA glue
Paint brushes for gluing and some for painting
Water
Balloons
Acrylic paints (a variety of vibrant colours)
Scissors

Intro

Kashmir in Pakistan is famous for its beautiful bowls, boxes, and other small objects handmade from papier-mâché. (Did you know that papier-mâché is the French word for "chewed paper"?!) They intricately paint them with beautiful flowers, patterns, animals and birds – sometimes with just a single goat hair!

Let’s make some papier-mâché bowls of our own and paint them, Kashmiri style! This is a 2-part activity, as you’ll need to let your paper creation dry before bringing it to life with colour.

Top tip

Not everyone likes the bang of a popped balloon! So do the popping for them if preferable

The Activity

Follow these steps to paint the bowls:

Lay out the paints on the table
Give each person their bowl back
Pop the balloon and remove
Trim the top of the bowl with scissors, if needed
Paint the bowl in a light colour (cream or white) as a base coat, inside and out
Leave the paint to dry – this may mean the session goes over to another day or later the same day
Encourage the person or group to think about the colours and designs they would like to create
If in a group, have a cuppa and chat about your designs – this could inspire ideas
Lay out the chosen paints and start painting
Once finished, leave to dry
These bowls are great for holding bits and bobs, or for giving as a gift.