Paper Mache Plants

Who doesn’t love mixed-media?! As an art teacher, that is my favorite kind of project because students learn that art doesn’t need to be compartmentalized into a “fiber unit” or “ceramic unit” but ultimately that many different types of media can be used for a singular vision.

Within this lesson, my students have used yarn, clay, paint, colored pencil, pastel, paper, concrete, wire, foil, and paper mache (of course) to create large, realistic replicas of plant species. A wide variety of skills are taught and built upon, so this works great with my upper level classes.

Students learn about armatures, different modes of creating them, and how to achieve accurate textures and shading on a three dimensional piece. Here, you can see objects used as generic shapes being formed into a specific plant, and then covered with strips of paper mache.

My students also connect this learning to plant species in general (nature documentaries are a fun way to open up their world to unique foliage)!

Sunflower

One student’s sunflower stands out with textured and colored paper as leaves, air dry clay texture on the plant and pot, and curled petals with painted detail.

Nursery pots are a great way to get the base into a good general shape for the pot of the plant, and students can then add foil or crumpled paper to the pot to shape it into whatever form they would like. Many of my students use a large cardboard tube (or multiple) to start off the base of the stalk. Using wire is a great way to suspend leaves from the base of the plant, and they can be covered quite easily with paper mache.

Students that love origami can use those skills to hand craft leaves or flowers. Yarns and fabrics are also really fun to incorporate to create texture!

This is a project that students consistently tell me was their favorite. Check out the full lesson on my TpT store and let me know how much fun your students have!