How to make a concept model using Paper Mache

Have you ever wondered how paper mache can be so handy in making some of the projects for kids. Well, i'm not going to explain how to make paper mache as there are lot of tutorials in the web for it. I'm going to share how i made my son's play school project. Hmmm, the topic given for my son's annual project was " We are One", it was not simple as well as not complicated. I got 2 weeks to complete this project and submit for evaluation. 

I used to wonder whether these projects are for the kids or is it for the parents. My son was hardly 3 yrs old, what will he understand by this topic  "We are One". It took me 2 solid days googling to understand what needs to be done. Even i tried to explain him about unity, but he never understood anything. Thats a different story. 

After googling i found a lot of examples with globe, peace dove, peace flag, hand and people. So i taught of placing a globe in 7 hands. The 7 hands represent 7 continents and i decided to paint each of them in different colour to show diversity. Unity in diversity is portrayed with 7 coloured hands holding 1 globe.

Now, the concept looks good but where do i get the hands and globe. I thought of using plaster of paris for moulding, which will turn out to be a heavy project. All of a sudden my idea bulb was bright with paper mache. 

Materials used

1. News paper strips

2. PVA glue ( Fevicol MR or SR )

3. Surgical gloves

4. Plastic ball

5. Acrylic colours

6. Satin ribbons (7 colours)

7. Thermacol sheet

8. Flag stickers ( countries of the world )

9. Match sticks

10. World map

All the above materials are easily available. The surgical gloves are made of latex and can be blown as a balloon. All the 7 gloves were blown to the optimum size of a hand and tied with strings. I diluted PVA glue in water, made news paper strips and kept it ready for paper mache project. Each blown glove was wraped with news paper strips dipped in the glue and the hand shape was maintained. Once the whole glove was fully covered, it was left to dry for 24 hrs undisturbed.

7 such hands were made and after drying they were painted with acrylic colours. The continents were cut out from the world map. Each continent piece was placed on the plastic ball and an outline was drawn to mark the continents. Then the continents were painted with acrylic colours.

On the thermacol sheet these hands were palced in a circular form and stuck using PVA glue (undiluted). Once the hands were in place the ball was palced on the fingers of the hand and glued. 

Satin ribbon was tied around each hand as a decoration and different country flags were palced around the globe. This project got second prize in the school annual day function.