Paper Mache Snakes

Oh this project will go down as one for the books! As an art teacher, this was a project I will never forget how exciting and fun this project was…but making over 65 snakes was also very overwhelming and exhausting! When I do this project again I will definitely make them on a much smaller scale…but can we appreciate how darn cool these are!!! These snakes are 3 to 4 feet tall if you can believe that! So let’s get to it!!

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NEEDED SUPPLIES: 

  • Wire hangers stretched out & shape how you want your snake’s body.
  • Paper Mache Mixture ( 3 c. Flour, 3 c. Water,  3Tablespoons Salt)
  • Newspaper (LOTS) 
  • Acrylic Paints
  • Cotton Balls for the eyes
  • Large Googly Eyes (Or you can draw your own and glue them on)
  • Red paper to cut out a tongue. 

DIRECTIONS:

  • To your large stretched out wire hanger, start scrunching up your pieces of newspaper and shoving them through the middle of the wire hanger until the whole hanger is full thick of newspaper. Twist the end of the hanger to pop up a bit to stop the paper from falling off the end.
  • Now wrap your snake in masking tape to secure the body and keep the paper more into the snake body shape. You don’t need to wrap the entire body in tape…just here and there to help.
  • Now make sure you have lots of cut strips of newspaper ready to go as well as your paper mache mixture mixed.
  • Taking one newspaper strip at a time, dip it into the paper mache mix scraping on the edge of the bowl when you take it out and start wrapping your entire snake. **I STRONGLY SUGGEST COVERING THE WHOLE SNAKE IN PAPER MACHE TWO TIMES. The double coverage makes your snake strong and it won’t tear or break as easily. **Keep in mind..this is SUPER messy and paper mache is basically glue. I would do this entire project over a disposable tablecloth.
  • Once you have finished wrapping your snake. Leave it to dry for at least three days. Or until you no longer see any wet spots.
  • Now the fun part, paint and decorate your snake. Use glue to help stick your two cotton balls to the top of your snakes head for eyes and don’t forget that cute snake tongue!
  • Give yourself plenty of time for things to dry with this project. I pushed this project to be finished in three one hour class times and it about killed me. This project requires a lot of help if you are doing it with younger children, so keep that in mind. BUT IT IS SO MUCH FUN!! I hope you have the best time! I want to see how your turn out!

Happy Creating - McKenzie