Making a Bowl from a Magazine

A week or so ago I made a little joke about making a BOWL out of a catalog for Cori rather than buying her anything from it.

This turned into a great project for me to do with Cassi's class. And I'll now be doing it with a couple other classes as well. It's a wonderful example of reusing, goes along with recycling and most importantly, they're cool!

I told Grandma I'd show her how to make them so I'm going to give it a shot.
You will begin by tearing the pages of the magazine apart. Use the crease already in the magazine, removing staples first if necessary. The should tear apart rather easily but if it seems they won't cooperate, use scissors instead.

Once you have a decent stack to work with begin folding. (Photos are positioned
(1-2)
(3-4)

1. I am using a blue piece of copy paper for an example (I thought it would be easier to see) however the idea is to use a catalog or magazine ( or many) rather than tossing it in the dump.
2. Fold your paper in half length-wise and make a solid crease.
3. Opened it will look like this.
4. Next, fold one side toward the center crease again making another solid crease. (tip: don't fold exactly to the center crease, instead just short of it. I will help in the end when you are folding the entire thing in half.)

5. This is what that would look like if you were to open it.
6. Now fold that same side to the center one more time, again making a solid crease. I use a bone folder to help me occasionally.
7. Now repeat all steps 4 and 6 on the other side.
8. This is the example and a catalog page side by side.

9. Once you have many prefolded sides, you can begin rolling your first page. Start very tight and tuck in any crinkles. It will not fold perfectly.
10. Once you rolled it almost the end add another page by overlapping the open centers of the page as you can see here. (Remember the next page you attach, you will do so with the opening facing up.) Use a small piece of scotch tape to secure the two pages together and roll your second page remembering to carefully tighten every now and again.
11. Unless you have a lazy day planned this may be a couple-day project. I fold about 20 papers at a time, then attach them. Tape the end of your last catalog page to the bowl to secure until you have more pages. You can slice the tape with scissors when you are ready to begin again.
12. Once you have the diameter you are happy with slowly, and I mean slowly start pushing your center down and sliding your sides up until you have the shape you want. Refrain as best you can from pushing the center out and back again as you are making it. One of those times it could pop out and you will be starting your rolling all over again.
13. Once your bowl is complete, you may want to cover it with mod podge to adhere the pages together. I heavily coat the inside, let it dry then do the outside.

HAVE FUN BUT BE CAREFUL-IT'S ADDICTING!