Sustainable Paper Clay Mushrooms

What to do with all that unsolicited mail piling up every week?

I’ve got the perfect solution!

A couple of months ago, I dusted off an old paper shredder that had been sitting in my basement. With a stack of junk mail cluttering my kitchen counter, I didn’t feel right just tossing it all in the recycling bin. Instead, I decided to shred it all down and make paper clay for the first time. Surprisingly, the shredding itself turned out to be the most exciting part—it felt cathartic, like I was on a mission to shred, shred, shred!

Within a month, I had filled two large cardboard boxes and was well into a third. I started looking up paper clay recipes but most were more complicated than I wanted. I kept it simple: just paper, water, and glue.

After letting the paper soak overnight, blending it, and adding glue, I began squeezing the pulp in my hands—so satisfying! I wasn’t sure what to create at first, so I stuck to something simple: flat circles and sticks. When I put them together, they looked like mushrooms, so mushrooms they became.

It took five days for the shapes to dry, but once they were ready, I eagerly coated them in gesso and painted them with matte acrylics. They didn’t resemble any specific type of mushroom, but they definitely had a “mushroomy” feel!

The whole process was simple, easy, and incredibly fun with such a satisfying result!