Tuesday 19 February 2013

Dragon eggs are kind of palish

newspapers, spotty tablecloth, papier mache materials
Newspaper ready
to go
This idea was inspired by this blog post here about not doing crafts with children. I get the impression from her picture of bunting that this blogger is probably a more skilled crafty person than me. However, I must gently disagree with her decision to use ordinary eggs as dragon eggs - surely they would be bigger?

Before I had even finished reading the blog post, I decided that we would make a dragon egg using papier mache around a balloon. I Googled to find recipes for the the paste and congratulated myself on not throwing out the junk mail newspapers that I had saved from before Christmas in case of ever doing papier mache.  Tearing the strips is quite a pleasing task. I was also pleased that I hadn't used up all the balloons doing these.


blue and green, craft, preparation, balloon, papier mache
Balloon and paint brushy
 things
While boiling up the water for the paste, the Zeds played with a balloon each. Predictably, it ended in tears when Z2 burst his. I distracted him from his misery with a couple of pre-lunch Smarties, then we ate luch, Z2 was despatched for his nap and Z1 and I sat down at the kitchen table to get going.

balloon, craft, papier mache
First layer
hanging to dry

I asked Z1 if she wanted a music on my laptop but she said she would prefer it to be quiet because otherwise she would be distracted. She was right and I was supposed to have learned that lesson already. We worked together happily and harmoniously and chatted about what colour we should paint it when it was finished. She told me that dragon eggs are kind of palish.


After she had gone to bed, I slapped another layer on to the now dry first layer to speed up the process as I didn't know how long Z1 would be willing to string this activity out. It did tie in quite nicely with the snow dragon which we made between layers so we had a bit of a dragon theme in the house.


balloon, craft, papier mache, paper mache, paint, glitter
Z1 in action painting
and glittering the egg
balloon, craft, papier mache, paper mache,
The finished dragon egg
hanging above our sink
Incidentally, our
dragon egg is not palish
but it is glittery.
Painting and glittering took place while I prepared Z1's school lunch and cooked rice for dinner. I didn't notice any glitter in the lunch or the rice but either way, thanks to reading an article about pregnancy tests for rhinos in Dublin zoo a few years ago, I am confident that glitter will not be harmful if ingested. I know human digestive systems are probably a bit different to those of rhinos but zoos are usually pretty careful about what they feed their animals so I am sure it's fine.



You may also be interested to know: 

  • The paste recipe I used (in the highlighted box at the bottom of the linked page) made a lot of paste. A large mixing bowl full. We have most of it left. I did add salt to stop it going mouldy but if anyone has a recipe for making it edible, please do send it my way.
  • We used some of Z1's discarded drawings on plain white paper for the final layer to make it easier to paint without newsprint showing through.


28 comments:

  1. Oh yeah! They are BRILLIANT dragon eggs - of course mine were too small, I thnk yours are just the right size, but you see, you did the whole papier mache thing that I just couldn't face! Thanks for the link!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, the paper mâché was less faff than I had envisaged but the large leftover bowl of glue is bothering me somewhat.

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  2. تخزين العفش بالرياض
    ومن مميزات الشركة ان الشركه توفر جميع الوسائل المطلوبه لتحزين الاثاث بأمان سواء من معدات والالات
    ورافعات واوانش تستطيع التعامل مع كافه الاماكن والمساحات الضيقه كانت او الواسعه
    وايضا لتستطيع نقل اي نوع من الاثاث اكان صغير الحجم او كبير
    وتوفير الادوات المخصصه لفك وتركيب وتغليف الاثاث سواء الاخشاب او المفروشات او الكنب
    فتقوم الشركه بتدرييب الفنيين على كيفية التعامل مع جميع انواع العفش وطرق تخزينه بامان
    تعتمد الشركة أثناء عملها علي فريق عمل محترف ومتخصص في أعمال النجارة والكهرباء، وتهتم الشركة في اختيار جميع العمال بدقة حتي سائق الشاحنات لديه الخبرة الكبيرة في نقل الاثاث، تسعى الشركة دائماً لتقديم افضل خدمة علي اعلي مستوي في وقت قياسي قصير.

    اولأن هدف شركتنا هو راحة عملائها الكرام بتوفير كل النقاط التي تساعد على تقديم الخدمة بشكل مميز جدا ومن أهم هذه النقاط هي توفير أرخص الأسعار للقيام بنقل العفش وتخزينه كما نوفر أفضل عماله مدربه على أعلى مستوى في تغليف ونقل العفش وتخزينه بطريقة صحيحة كما نوفر أيضا أحدث المعدات التي تستخدم في نقل وتخزين العفش لتجعل الخدمة أكثر سهولة وأمان دون التسبب في أي ضرر.
    تخزين العفش بالرياض
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