Painting on the Ceiling: Stylish DIY Papier Mâché Gold Mirror Tutorial

So excited about how this one turned out!

I usually like to do stealth upcycling, wherein the viewer doesn't realize that the object or art was made (usually for free) out of trash. I'm particularly delighted with this project because I think it actually looks like hammered gold. And, yes, it was completely free. Plus it weighs a good deal less than it would if it were gold!

It was not a quickie project, but it was really satisfying to make. A tutorial follows after the jump if you would like one of your own.

Here are the materials for the armature of the mirror. Basically, we are talking cardboard and a small mirror.

And here are my papier-mâché ingredients.

Most people would probably plan out their project. I would recommend that, in fact, even though I winged it.

Sketch out your design directly onto the cardboard you are going to use. Feel free to erase and redraw -- no one is going to see this. The cardboard I used was from a shoe box, although the contained boots and was fairly sturdy. There's going to be lots of layering before you're done. So don't feel that you need to find bomb-proof cardboard or anything.

Cut out what you have sketched. I used a combination of regular scissors, heavy-duty scissors for cardboard and plastic, and my X-acto knife. Now you have the basic shape of what will be the first of three layers.

Next, the second layer. Do you want your waves to match or to appear more random? Either takes planning. I chose random, of course, so I had to check and make sure that my waves were varied. Remember, you can always rotate or flip the second layer rather than starting over and making a new one. Also, you'll want to think a little bit about the proportion, and how much of the first layer you want to see behind the second, and how much of the second layer you want to see behind the top, or third layer. The second layer needs an opening the size of the mirror.

The mirror does not have to fit exactly because the third layer will have an opening that is slightly smaller, covering up any tiny gaps between the cardboard and the mirror. When the third layer is on top of the second layer you will not see the edges of the mirror. I was particularly happy about this because my mirror's edges were rather sharp.

I tried out the two layers together, and then moved on to making my third layer. Here, I want the opening to be slightly smaller, as discussed above, so that the mirror's edges are concealed, and so that it would not fall out if I opted not to glue it. (I did opt to glue it, but I'm hoping that explanation makes it more clear how everything goes together.)

I used cheap white tempera paint on the second layer so that I would have enough contrast to check and see if I liked my waves.

As it turned out, I didn't. So I made another second layer. I then played with rotating and flipping over the various layers until I got my waves where I wanted them. I did not want the waves to run to parallel for very long on any one area, and I also wanted a fairly consistent distance between the edges. As you can see, rotating and flipping gave me a variety of options. These are all the same three pieces of cardboard.

Once I had committed to the design, I carefully traced in pencil around the second and third layers and put a dot at the top of each. Not only did I want to be able to reassemble it the way I had decided, I did not want to get papier-mâché texture underneath any of the layers. They need to lie flat. Papier-mâché is bumpy. Ergo, only the visible parts of the layers would be covered with papier-mâché.

I also made a hole in the first/bottom layer to hang the mirror. I made sure to put it where the second/middle layer would conceal the hole. I made a horizontal line instead of a circle, though, as the weight distribution of the final project is pretty random and I couldn’t be sure exactly how it was going to hang.

I traced the bottom layer and made a backing for it, a totally unnecessary step for most people since the back of the mirror will be up against a wall, but since this was an item I planned to sell, I wanted to class it up a bit.

Now, on to making papier-mâché!

I followed the instructions in this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQkAvR_rL_E

(NOTE: You are encouraged to find a papier-mâché recipe that works for you. This one doesn’t work all that well for me and I am still enough experimenting to figure out what I’m doing wrong. It’s not cohesive enough to be worked like clay and it should be.) There is no measuring involved. The ingredients are:

* Tissue paper, soaked overnight, or in my case, for about a week and a half since I got busy with other things

*White powdered chalk, the kind used for marking the ground in construction, which I had to call around to a lot of hardware stores to find

* Sawdust, as fine as you can find. (Thanks, Dad!)

* Linseed oil, to help prevent mold

* PVA or white glue. You can buy it by the gallon in the hardware store.

Here is the basic procedure.

Rip up the tissue paper (or newspaper, or recycled office paper) into bits, I suppose about an inch square. Soak it overnight, if you like, and boil it, if you like.

Make more than you think you need and then don't fret about how much. It's going to have to dry for a couple of days between applications, so you'll have plenty of time to make more. You can make papier-mâché beads with the left overs.

Pulp the paper in the blender, making sure to include a generous amount of water, and not to do too much paper at the same time. Don't you love my ‘70s thrifted crafting blender?

Run the pulp through a strainer to get rid of the excess water. You're supposed to resist the urge to mash the pulp too much, so as not to compact the fibers. What you see here is about one fourth of my total. You need twice as much paper than you do the other ingredients.

When I am done, mine looks like this.

I added about half as much sawdust as I had paper pulp.

I added about half as much chalk as I had paper pulp.

I poured in a random amount of linseed oil, perhaps a tablespoon or two.

Mix. About this point, I have despaired of getting anything that looks remotely like papier-mâché.

So I added lots of glue.

I kept adding glue and stirring until it started to look like something shapeable. Here are some of my first batch. Obviously it wasn't enough to cover the surface area I needed to cover.

It looks like spoilt tuna. And it never holds together like it's supposed to. It's supposed to be like clay and it isn't. It does work, but it's not much fun to work with, so you're strongly advised to seek out your own papier-mâché recipe. The Internet abounds in papier-mâché recipes and not all of them require chalk and sawdust.

Next, I began applying the papier-mâché to the cardboard.

In between uses, leftover papier-mâché can be stored in the refrigerator. I have kept mine in there up to a week or two.

Go ahead and cover all three layers. I had wanted to dry mine propped up on something so it would not stick to what was underneath it, but the moisture from the papier-mâché made the cardboard tend to curve, so I used waxed paper instead, plus a book to keep the large piece flat.

The second application of papier-mâché I used to cover the edges, smooth out areas that needed it, and add more variety to the surface.

I particularly wanted to cover up spots like this.

Cardboard is many things, but it is not chic!

After the second layer of papier-mâché was completely dry, I sanded it to smooth over jagged edges and rough spots. Here’s a before and after.

I primed it using left-over outdoor primer since I had plenty on hand, but you could use gesso, or just white paint.

NOTE: I did not choose that carpet. It was here when we bought the house and it remains in the studio because I don't care if I drip paint on it!

I painted the bottom and top players gold, using less than one 2 ounce bottle of DecoArt acrylic gold paint. Next time, I will paint the underside edge of the top layer, as it turned out to be visible in the mirror. (Hadn’t thought of that!)

I was worried that the three layers would not be distinct enough, and that what I was trying to do with the waves would be lost. I didn’t want my mirror to be floating amid a big gold blob. So for the middle layer, I wanted a slightly different color. I painted a base coat of copper, let it dry, and then did a layer of gold, then in some places so that the copper undertone shone through.

You can see I am halfway done, the color is slightly different. It probably isn't different enough, so if I did made another three-layer mirror I might do the middle layer in copper or silver or black.

I made the hole for hanging the mirror a little neater with slips of scratch paper then I sealed the opening with multiple coats of ModPodge.

Next, I glued the layers together, one at a time. Just for fun, I brushed PVA (a.k.a. white glue) on one layer and industrial-strength Beacon 527 on the other. I worked way too hard on this to have it fall apart! I let each layer dry completely before adding the next, although I glued the second layer and the mirror on to the bottom layer at the same time.