ANCIENT ROMAN HELMET

PAPIER MASHE or DECOUPAGE is a powerful art technique with endless possibility for what you can make with some glue , scissors and paper or cardboard - or paper paste if you want to model 3 D sculptures . So, I decided to make an ancient Roman Empire helmet , that soldiers of the Roman army were wearing in battles. Old Roman helmet was a work of art along with the whole outfit made of metal, leather and textile. Roman sandals , have never went out of fashion, till today. In this tutorial you can see how to make a HELMET , out of used cardboard boxes and napkins. Pick your model - your favorite boy , take a measurement of his head and invite him to join you in a creative process, that last for a few days - due to time needed for drying wet cardboard and paper.

For this project I used :

Some boxes of thin cardboard, that is easy to fold, but not easy to tear apart.

White wood glue ( or school glue ) that is water soluble.

Red napkins for the crest ( plume.) ( I am not sure about the right word :) :)

Some colors . I have used my watercolor , but acrylics are good also.

Duct tape -for making initial 3 d form - or body of the helmet.

Scissors for cutting.

Brush for decoupage.

Big plastic bottle as a stand for the helmet in progress :) for drying .

Patience and imagination - to start with.

Take some thin strip of cardboard, and measure your head, or the head of the future user of the helmet. It should be a round shape - as in photos, and fix the ends with a duct tape. Take another strip and measure the height of the head . or the dept of the helmet. Make the shape as in the last photo . This will be your cutting parts for the actual cardboard you will use for the helmet.

Transferring and cutting of the basic shape for the helmet. Fold the stripe of cardboard and fix it with the duct tape. This is temporary hold, the wood glue will hold the cardboard permanently.

Cut the stripe of cardboard that goes around a head , like in photos. Like you are making a crown. Then glue on the top the sharp edges, one above another like in photos. Have in mind the size of the head - that goes in. So, do not make it bigger than needed.

Put the round ( temporary fixed ) cap of the helmet and make a "C" shape in another piece of cardboard. Fold it and cut it symmetrically. Attach that part to the cap as in photos using duct tape.

This is the most difficult part to cut , since I made a free hand drawing for that. So, draw a shape that includes holes for the eyes, and the protection for the nose and side of the head. You can copy some of this photos and use it to trace the shape. Folding a cardboard can help to cut a symmetrical shape. Ad it to the basic shape and mark the shape - so you can adjust it , and make it symmetrical to sides of the helmet. I had to shorten the nose protector , since it was to long , and also the side shapes were adjusted and shortened. As this front part is attached to the helmet with a duct tape , it is ready for the decoupage process.

In order to get a sophisticated and durable "body" of a cardboard helmet, decoupage is a great technique.

Kitchen towels are ideal for the first layer of decoupage, because they do not tear apart like toilet paper. Newspapers also can be used for this layering, but daily newspapers, not shiny one, because it is more difficult to wet them.

Pour one part of white glue and two parts of water and steer well. Use a large brush to wet the surface and wet again over the kitchen towel piece.

This is the ugly phase ! Everything is wet and easy to fall apart, so you must be careful and work in phases. Find a big plastic bottle for resting the helmet to dry over night. It dries over night quite well , so you can add another layer of kitchen towels and glue them to the helmet. It is optional, but it helps for forming a better shape of the helmet.

Protect your working surface, because of dripping glue.

Lett it dry completely . . It needs at least two days to be bone dry.

Get those shiny paper from shoe box . White and kind a silky .Decoupage one more layer with this paper , so then you will get more nice surface . Shiny and more evan. It is easy to do, because this paper do not tear apart during the process. Make a glue solution and brush it on the surface of the helmet. all over.

I have used my watercolor paints to paint the helmet, burnt siena and some orange color for edges , so that can look as rust . But, metal acrylic paint will be the best for coloring the helmet.

This is also an ugly phase , because I have used napkins for decoupage the inside the helmet, and it tears apart easy. But look fancy , after ! In this phase, the dept of the helmet can be adjusted - as in second photo - with a bunch of newspapers. By using red napkins, there is no need for coloring after -decoupage with watery glue.

In this step , I have the least text ( due to my lack of words ) and the most of the photos, so you can clearly see how to make a red crest. Tear apart a few napkins in stripes and make one big row of stripes. How long should it be - you can measure with one stripe and place it next to the future crest . For fixing together the stripes I have used the needle , but sewing machine would do a better job for this. But I am currently in Germany for a job, so I do it in my free time , and do not have all my craft toys with me, so I improvise. You can see the shape of the crest - how it is formed, and the procedure of sticking together in one unit.

So, this is why the long stripe is needed . I have used a needle again for fixing the crest to the helmet, and one layer of pure glue can be put in between , so it can stick better.

And VOILA ! After all is dry, colored and stitched together , you have the BEST CARDBOARD HELMET IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD :) or in kindergarden - in the park ,playground - or in the street ( if kids are playing on the streets anymore :)