My son was tasked with making a volcano for school. I was hoping we would get away with a simple drawing or basic model with red and orange crepe paper as lava. No such luck! Once he saw that other kids had made WORKING volcanoes, we of course had to make a working one (thanks, other moms!).
Not knowing where to begin, I decided to wing it – LOL. I used a very complicated method that involved a plastic cup and paper plates to create a not-so-stable base for our papier–mâché. I’ve since discovered that crumpled newspaper works well to form the basic shape of the volcano around your cup or bottle. I found some great tips at Red Ted Art, which I have combined with my own ideas below.
Materials:
- An empty plastic bottle/cup
- Newspaper
- Masking tape
- A box or similar “to contain” the volcano (we used a flat cake board)
- Plain flour and water
- Paints
- Waterproof varnish (optional)
Papier–Mâché Paste
Mix one part flour to two parts water in a container (half a cup of flour and a cup of water). Some recipes suggest you heat the mixture in the microwave, but we used it cold and it worked just fine.
Make your Volcano
Cut down the cardboard box to create a base for your volcano to go in and to capture the fluids from the erupting volcano. Place your empty plastic bottle/cup in the centre of your cardboard box and glue it in place.
Scrunch up some newspaper and place it all around the bottle. Using your masking tape, make a “frame” – running from the top of the bottle down to the cardboard platform and trapping the scrunched up newspaper underneath.
Tear newspaper into strips and start applying your papier–mâché layers all around the volcano – using the masking tape as a frame. This is the fun and messy part! Let it dry overnight.
Now get painting! We used all shades of brown, grey and black for the rock, then added lava in red, orange and yellow. Let it dry.
We didn’t do this step, but I would highly recommend it – add a coat of waterproof varnish. This won’t make the volcano totally waterproof, but will certainly help in preserving it.
For the Volcanic Eruption:
To make the lava, all you need is bicarb and vinegar. I added red food colouring to the vinegar to make it look like lava, and put some bicarb in a separate container. So my son had to just add the bicarb to the cup at the centre of his volcano and pour in the red vinegar, and it all bubbled out like real lava!
By Sarah Mackintosh.