Sustainable Saturday

I wanted to find some  re-use for the old mouse pad, and this is what we did:

Soon it’s time to start some seeds for the spring. Just ordered some soil/compost and making some pots. I found these great instructions for making origami seed pots: recycle your newspapers at the same time! http://www.downsizer.net/Projects/Growing_food/Origami_Seed_Pots/

Here are instructions for completely biodegradable Christmas ornaments that are fun to make. The ornaments are completely unbreakable and you can just throw them in your compost bin to degrade after you’re bored of them. You can use the same idea to make Easter egg decorations..

What you’ll need:

1. empty egg shells
2. water
3. flour
4. paper (magazines/ newspaper/ old Christmas wrapping paper, etc)
5. bits of string to hang the ornaments

Instructions:

1. Save some egg shells from cooking (try to break the shells as least as possible) and try to assemble them to original shape. You May need to use a piece of tape to hold them together. Let the shells dry at least overnight before proceeding.

2. Prepare the paper mache paste. You will need 1 part of flour and 5 parts of cold water. Put the flour and water in a pot and mix it well. Bring the mixture to boil and let it boil about 2-3 minutes. It should be smooth and have the constancy of thick glue. If necessary, you can add more water or flour-cold water mix (you cannot add flour in hot liquid otherwise it will become lumpy) in small amounts until you get the desired consistency. OPTIONAL: add a bit of salt to the mixture avoid the molding. You can also add a bit of cinnamon, vanilla or other spices of your liking to the mixture to make your final art smell delightfully.

3. PAPER MACHE EGGS: assemble the eggs and cover them with layers of papers strips dipped into the paper mache glue. Let the eggs dry after each 2-3 layers of paper, so they don’t get moldy. Usually I do 5-6 layers all together – 2-3 in first day and the rest in next day after the first layers have dried off. Before adding the final 2 layers, attached a loop of string on top of the ornament so you can hang it on a tree. Final layer can be some colorful strips of magazine paper or some strips from old wrapping paper. Optionally you can also do the final layer in white paper and paint the ornaments later.

Here some more ideas for paper mache http://www.cockeyed.com/lessons/papermache/papermache01.shtml

I’ll be posting pictures later, as this will be one of my next “Sustainable Saturday” projects