Hand Painted Japanese Rice Paper for the Fireworks Shadow Box

I suppose you could call this post a bit of a tutorial, that is without giving a complete step by step process!

I use acrylic paint to paint the paper. I brought down a selection of paints that had been premixed for other projects, this is a great way of using up old paint.

The shadow box is in the background. I decided to attach wire mesh to the outside of the shadow box and then wire the fireworks to the mesh. The back and sides have been painted with the same paint that will used as an undercoat on the paper.

Our trusty garden work table, the remains of a picnic table that I disliked very much has been turned into a work station. I grabbed a piece of coreplast plastic to lay the paper on while I painted it. Once it is painted it has to be carefully lifted so that it won't stick to the plastic; then set on the table to dry. When the paint is dry then the other side is painted.

This long sheet of paper was the remains of a roll of heavier weight rice paper. This paper is so much easier to handle when wet than the lighter weight rice paper.

These small sections of ricepaper were from a pad of paper for brush painting. The paper was a little thin and would easily tear when it was wet.

The finished long sheet of rice paper. Both sides were painted with the undercoat of olive/khaki green. Once the paper was dry I dripped and daubed autumn leaf colours onto the paper, then blending them with a large brush and a sea sponge.

I didn't mention but that green paint was created quite a while ago for this sculpture. I wanted a generic packing crate paper green. I used some of my jars of paint from previous sculptures to create the colour. I ended up with quite a lot more than needed but most of it was used for this project.

This shows the base colour and the finished strip of paper with the variegated autumn leaf colours; both sides were painted. When the individual leaf is cut from the paper it will have the colours of an autumn leaf.  I will cut the paper into long strips of small leaf shapes that will then be crushed, opened up, and then wound around the wire stems holding the fireworks in position around the frame. I want to hide the wires but also add background interest and suggest the time of year that the fireworks will be used.

I much prefer using hand-painted papers because they are sturdier so they will not crush or tear as easily as crepe-papier. The paper colour is permanent and will not fade; something that I have noticed to my horror with very early items I had made many years ago when I used crepe-papier.

The party horn that the snowman is holding has a yellow painted paper frill and circles punched from painted paper to create the design on the body of the horn. The rose, green tutfs and yellow coils at the base of the rose are all painted paper as well.

This pickle's Hallowe'en party hat was created from hand painted papers and a large antique paper fastener. Buy him here in my Etsy shop.