Making a Cylindrical Vase with Paper Mache

How to make a Cylindrical Vase with Paper Mache

For this project we are going to use an empty plastic bottle with the top cut off to make a liner for a cylindrical vase.

1. Cut a piece of cardboard (that can be rolled) 5 cm wider than the plastic bottle liner is tall, and long enough to wrap around the bottle twice.

2. Also cut a circle of corrugated cardboard the same diameter as the bottle.

3. Because cardboard is thick, if we just wrap it around and glue it, the seam will show as a raised edge or ridge. In order to get around this problem, peal away some of the cardboard at the end of the strip to reduce its thickness. This will make the seam less noticable ... this is called feathering



4. Roll a piece of newspaper around the plastic bottle to prevent the cardboard in the next step from sticking to it, then roll the cardboard around the plastic bottle.

The picture below shows the rolling and gluing of the cardboard cylinder around the plastic bottle. Use white PVA glue diluted half and half with water for gluing.


After rolling and gluing, fasten with a stapler, then join securly with a strip of packing tape. as shown in the picture below.

Next, glue a large iron washer to the round cardboard base to act as a weight for keeping the vase sturdy. See picture below.

The base with the iron washer (weight) attached, is now inserted into the bottom of the cylinder and pushed in about 1/2 inch. Leave the plastic bottle inside if you think you may want to fill it with water for fresh flowers.
If you are going to use it only for dried flowers, you may remove the plastic bottle later.

The cylinder is now covered with several layers of rectangular strips of torn newspaper. The strips should be about 1 1/2 inches x 3 inches. Use white PVA glue diluted half and half. When this is done, put it aside to dry. This could take a day or two depending on the temperature. Do not try drying in an over as it may burn.

When the vase has dried, paint with two or three generous coats of white vinyl water based exterior paint. When that is dry, it can be decorated with decoupage, hand painted, decorated with string, beads, texture paints, fabric or anything else that may take your fancy.