Handmade Paper Vessels

Requirements for making your Paper Vessel from handmade paper

What you will need:

• Mount board: You can buy a whole sheet of mount board from a stationary shop, or check with your local picture framer to see if they have mountboard offcuts. The mount board colour is not important as you will not be able to see it when it is covered with paper.
• Natural lokta handmade artists paper (one or two 75 by 50 cm sheets of lokta artist paper or lokta gift wrap paper should be plenty)
• washing up bowl
• adhesive (wallpaper paste)
• 1.3 cm (1/2 inch) round brush or similar
• masking tape
• paper clips, scissors, craft knife & tape measure
• (”Making a Pencil holder” photo 1 shows similar requirements except for the card cylinders)

How to make your Paper Vessel from handmade paper

1. Decide on the shape of the base of your vessel. Draw the shape on a piece of mount board (photo 1) and cut it out. You can use a saucer or a lid to help you draw a circle on your mount board. When you are more experienced, you can make oval vessels and even vessels with wavy edges.

2. Using a tape measure, measure round the edge of your piece of mount board (photo 2). Add 4 cm to the measurements to allow for overlap.

3. Decide how high you want your vessel to be (6 cm is a good height).

4. Cut a strip of mount board using the two measurements above (photo 3). You will probably need a craft knife for that.

5. Place the strip around your base and check that it is a good fit. Mark where it overlaps.

6. Put your strip of mount board in water until it is wet (photo 4). Take it out of the water and peel the layers apart where it overlaps (photo 5). Cut away one of the layers from each of the edges where the strip overlaps (photo 6). By doing this you will avoid creating a raised area or bump on the overlap. Keep this overlapped area together using paper clips (photo 7).

7. Use masking tape to hold the outside rim to the base (photo 8).

8. Prepare the adhesive and the handmade paper [photos 4 to 5 from Making a Paper Pencil Holder]

9. Stick the handmade paper to the small container [photos 6 to 8 from Making a Paper Pencil Holder]

10. Decorate the your paper container and finish it [photos 9 to 11 from Making a Paper Pencil Holder] and photo 9 on this page.

Back to:
a) Handmade Paper Vessels
b) Handmade Paper Beads (coming soon)
c) Gift Wrapping with Handmade Paper (coming soon)
d) Origami with Handmade Paper

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Last updated on 20 December 2023
Website+photos - Mike Roberts ©2006-24 WildPaper handmade paper