I've seen Yarn Bowls online and wanted something a little more "natural" looking. What better than twine?

It's really easy to put together, the biggest part is waiting, and it is messy!

First make a Paper Mache Paste. You probably have all of the ingredients right now, and if you are going to make one bowl you can probably half the recipe and be ok! I made the whole recipe and had left overs. I stored them in a glass dish with pop on lid and stored it under my cabinet. When I went to use it again in the guest/craft room I kept smelling something that smelled like puke...it was the paste & it went straight into the outside garbage can! It was past awful smelling!

Paper Mache Paste
1/2 cup flour
2 cups cold water
2 cups water (for boiling)

1. Combine ½ cup flour and 2 cups cold water in a bowl.
2. Boil 2 cups of water in a sauce pan and add the flour and cold water mixture.
3. Bring to a boil again.
4. Remove from heat and add 3 tablespoons of sugar.
5. Let cool. The paste will thicken as it cools.



Now to make the bowl.

Find a bowl that you would like to replicate. I used a metal mixing bowl. Wrap the bowl with saran wrap and place the wrapped bowl on something (baking sheet, cutting board, etc.), open end down.



Pick the twine (or any other thick string that you would like to use).



Unwind a good amount of twine (but do not cut). Place the unwound part into the paste bowl and make sure that it is nice and coated in paste! This is where you will get messy. I let it soak in the paste for awhile so that it was saturated pretty well. Pull the end of the twine from the paste and start to "wring" it out. I just pulled it through my thumb and index finger to get the extra glue off.

Start at the bottom of the bowl and start wrapping the twine. You can make this as full or loose as you want. I wanted mine to be completely wrapped. Just wrap and wrap and wrap until you are happy with how it looks!



Once you have your bowl wrapped how you want it use a brush of some kind (I just grabbed my pastry brush) and "paint" the bowl so its really coated in paste. This really helps all of the strands stick together and secures the bowl.



Leave the bowl to dry overnight. There might be a few damp spots but as long as its mostly dry it will be ok to take off the of the mold. Once its dry it will slide right off of the bowl that you used.



Ta da! I put mine on the cooling rack for awhile because the bottom was still a little wet. This would be really fun to do with different shaped dishes and use as decoration around the house! Mine is the catchall bowl in the kitchen (keys, pens, change, anything I don't want out on the counter).