Making paper harder?

Hi everyone,
I was wondering if anyone has ideas on how to make paper sturdier? I want to make some earrings using painted paper, and I don't want the paper to bend or be flimsy. I was thinking maybe using paper mache, but I don't know if water colour would look good on it. The idea of the earrings is to have a nice watercolour painting on them, and that's why I need to use paper... What about paper mache with plaster? Will watercolour work?
I tried using PaverPol, but it didn't harden the paper, just made it shiny and plastic-like :/
Any ideas?

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3 replies since 2nd August 2012 • Last reply 2nd August 2012

Reply #1:

You could try using two separate pieces of paper for each earring and gluing them together this should make it stronger, you could even add a couple layers in between to make it really stiff.

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Reply #2:

Elmer's glue and water, soak and dry

if your worried about the color bleeding I'd just coat it in elmers glue or mod podge

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Reply #3:

I like matte mod podge, but it can be finnicky to apply evenly. I like using a sponge brush with mod podge that's been watered down a little for a smooth consistency.

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