This was the start of one of the many projects that I wanted to do for the Iron Craft Green challenge. The goal was to use recycled streamers from the theater that were being used in the closing number of Barry Manilow on Broadway. The streamers covered the whole theater and they were just being thrown away.
Seeing an opportunity for recycling, I would collect the streamers every night and take them home on the subway which would illicit some wonderful reactions. The streamers where shot out of air cannons and they are super thin paper--I was expecting tissue paper or crepe paper consistency but these were even thinner than that.
One of the projects that I wanted to try was to papier mache them to a while paper Chinese lantern. I mixed up some paper paste usually used for papier mache and started to work. The biggest problem is that the paper was so thin it would rip while trying to apply it to the lantern. Once I started putting the paste on the lantern rather than the streamers it seemed to work better. What I didn't anticipate was the paste drying and leaving a residue. Normally, it would be covered with another layer that got painted so if I did that it would waste the color of the streamers.
These are new battery operated paper lanterns that I found online so I don't have to worry about the new paper catching fire. In the next attempt, I might try and use ModPodge because it dries clear. Until then, I have to figure out how to remedy this failed attempt.
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| Bag of recycled streamers |
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| Failed attempt #1 |
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