Nicole Alderman

So, I put the clothes into laundry soap, dial soap (had some lying around from like 10 years ago), and hydrogen peroxide. Let it soak for 2 hours.

When I went to scrub them, the dandelion milk stains had changed from light brown to dark brown. The dark brown is what they always end up looking like, but I hadn't realized that either (A) the cleaning, or (B) the water reacts with the latex in the dandelion milk to turn it so dark and brown.

I left it to soak over night and haven't looked at it yet. But, I don't have high hopes...

My daughter was having a blast picking dandelions today, and got the milky sap on her shirt. This has happened in the past, and I've never managed to get the stain out. It never gets lighter or fainter (they're little brown circles, kind of like stamps made by the stems).

Any ideas?

I'm just cheap and lazy, and just use gelatin sold for food. I've used the Knox plain gelatin (found in grocery stores), as well as bulk gelatin used for food (I usually buy Zint Gelatin). The hardest part would be keeping it warm. I tend to just keep it on the stove on like medium-low and use it that way--though it does stay liquid for quite a while off the stove.

I already have the gelatin on hand for making fruit jello...while I don't have any wheat because we don't eat gluten in our house for autoimmune condition reasons. Most people are more likely to have wheat in the house than they are to have gelatin, though!

One thing I'd like to try some day is attempt paper mache with gelatin. I tried it with gum arabic when I made my orange peal boxes, but it reannimated really easily.

Gelatin is harder to reanimate. Bookmakers like it because (A) it's stretchy, and (B) you can reanimate it if you need to with warm water. I'm pretty sure, though, that it doesn't reanimate with cold water. I feel like it would make a stronger, more flexible paper mache than wheat glue does. But, I didn't really find anyone attempting it.

Another option might be casein glue? I think there's a thread somewhere on here about casein glues being really strong. They do shrink and can crack if the stuff they're adhered to isn't flexible enough.. Maybe they'd work better in a paper mache?

When I was doing my Greek mask project, I accidently stumbled across this video about making traditional camel skin lamps in Pakistan. it's not quite paper mache, but it's super close, and fascinating to see how they made molds that they could crack out of their lamps.



It's basically like they're making a paper mache made with skin, (I'm assuming) gelatin glue, and plaster of Paris.

Their plaster of Paris is likely taking the roll of our balloon. White the skin=paper and the gelatin = glue. They even make a "paper clay" with ground up camel skin!

Since the lamp is made of skin/leather and (I would assume) gelatin from the skin, it's strong enough and flexible enough that you can bash it just hard enough to crack out the plaster of Paris without hurting the lamp. I think the same technique would likely break a paper mache mask made with wheat glue. My student with a wheat-glue mask had a fragile mask that cracked easily.

I honestly think a similar method to this was used to make the Greek theater masks. They likely used linen cloth (this is before the invention of paper) or maybe leather, and likely a wheat or gelatin glue. Whatever they used, it decomposed, because there's no existing masks to look at.

r ransom wrote:Also, is there any reason not to add clove essential oil to the mix?  It prevents mould and pests.  But it is an oil, and maybe won't mix?

When I bound my books with gelatin glue, I just added ground up cloves to the mix. I didn't have any clove oil on hand, and figured it would probably help. The book hasn't rotted, so that's a good sign!

T Melville wrote:

Nicole Alderman wrote:My husband euthanized many a fish with clove oil. It paralyzes their breathing muscles and they slowly--but relatively painlessly--die. To this day, I associate the smell with dead fish, and struggle to add it to my pumpkin pies...

I've seen Joey do it twice now, with his fish recovering in a few minutes. I'm guessing your husband used more?

Yep, the dosage matters. A smaller dose works great for anesthesia. I'd have to ask my husband how much he used for euthanasia. I went looking on the internet, but oddly enough, couldn't find the dosage--it's just says it's more and to leave the fish in for a long time to make sure they're dead (which means you're smelling it for a long time).

Google is probably failing me at finding the dosage amount. I'll try to ask him when he gets back from work.

T Melville wrote:I don't know enough about clove oil to discuss safe handling, but please be sure you do. It works as an anesthetic, and I don't know how much it takes to affect a human. The King of DIY uses it when he has a fish that needs a surgery.

My husband euthanized many a fish with clove oil. It paralyzes their breathing muscles and they slowly--but relatively painlessly--die. To this day, I associate the smell with dead fish, and struggle to add it to my pumpkin pies...

Another thing I learned: Make sure you have high-quality balloons! The ones I ordered ended up being so cheap that they deflated while the masks were still drying. This resorted in many misshapen masks (one was entirely crumpled and I had to make a new one at home for him.)

r ransom wrote:Does the type of paper make a difference?

I was going to use news paper because that's what we used in elementary school.  But the look of a paper bag is nicer.  Then again, it's going to be painted...

Cutting or tearing make any difference?  

Whatever you do, don't make it out of paper towels! That was one of my biggest mistakes with my recent Greek Paper Mache Mask project. I thought I could use amazon packaging paper (since I had a lot of it), but the kids were struggling with getting it smooth. So, I used the cheap brown paper towels from the paper towel dispenser at my kids' school. Bad idea! It worked find when we applied it, but it was SO WEAK. And if we tried to paint to add anything to it, it just collapsed. The more absorbent paper towels also didn't have structural integrity and they also absorbed a lot of glue mixture.

(We used Elmer's glue because I'm used to making paper clay with it, and it was free at the school. I also didn't want to worry about cooking wheat paste for 50 kids. Maybe I should have.... I have many regrets about this whole project!)

The amazon packaging paper worked pretty well. So, too, did normal printer paper. I used paper bags, too. None of those were smooth, but they were all at least strong. I didn't have newspaper to try, but I can see why it'd be good. You want paper that's thin but won't fall apart easily when wet. I've seen some videos where they did the first layer in something beefy and strong--like paper bags or newspaper--and then did a tissue paper layer to smooth it all out.

I would rip rather than cut, because it will keep longer fibers and sort of fray the edges for a smoother boarder.

One of my students made his mask at home with wheat paste, and it broke when it dropped--none of the Elmer's glue helmets broke when dropped--they just ripped and collapsed when wet. I don't know if he cooked his wheat paste, though.

I wonder if adding something like gum arabic to the paper mache mixture would be useful?