reCreate Featured Artist Maddie Hewitt lead a paper mache and collage workshop at The Resource Exchange this past Sunday. Maddie is a local artist who uses reclaimed and found materials in her collage pieces. The workshop focused on a natural paper mache technique that Maddie uses in her own work. She demonstrated how to make wheat paste using the following recipe:

Mix 3 tbsp. brown rice flour and 10 tsp. water. Stir until it becomes a soupy mixture. In a pot, boil 1 cup of water. Once water is boiling stir in brown rice mixture. Continue stirring for 2 minutes. You can add 1tbsp. of sugar or honey to thicken the mixture. Let cool. Just paint the paste onto any paper collage project (back or front of images) to use this natural alternative to glue.

After making wheat paste, the participants looked through old magazines (many from the resource exchange!) for images to include in their collage work. A slideshow of other collage and paper mache artists played throughout the workshop for inspiration. At the end of the day, participants were able to go home with many small collage pieces paper mached with the wheat paste and re materials.