Pinatas and Lampshades as Thin-Shelled Structures

        Back to the drawing board. I know my posts seem all over the place in terms of topics, but they seem to make sense in my head. So while I was trying hard to find things to do to avoid working on my proposal, I started making a lampshade. What does a lampshade have to do with ecological building, you ask (besides being a distraction from Ph.D. proposals)? Well, I'll tell you.

     Last week was my daughter's birthday, and since I've moved to Germany, I've had to make my own pinatas for their birthdays. I usually do this with old newspaper and glue made with wheat flour and water. I tried the uncooked method of making the flour paste, but when it dried it was really cakey and peeled off, and left a lot of powder dust on the inside of the form. This time I experimented with tapioca flour (remember good old tapioca flour? I tried to make that by hand a few posts ago). This time I bought the refined tapioca flour at the local Asian store. I got this idea from an NGO that works in Thailand that uses a mixture of tapioca and water to waterproof their houses, also mixing it in with mud as a final coating. I was finally able to reach someone and get information on how exactly they do this, but their instructions were nothing more than to mix the flour with water, a lot of water, but no clear proportions. 
     When I made the pinata, I used the same proportions with the tapioca flour as I use when I make the wheat flour paste. Some of it came out a clear paste, but there were globs of white tapioca that didn't mix the same and made the whole thing look like a bottle of gefilte fish. It was sticky enough, but it was too thick, and even when I added twice as much water, it was still thick. I was able to work with it, and it held enough to do it's job, until of course, the whole thing was destroyed by 10 little kids. 

Sydney Opera House, designed by Jorn Utzon.
One of the more famous examples of thin-shelled
concrete architecture.

     Every time I make a pinata, I start thinking about how similar they are to thin-shelled concrete structures. And I wonder if the "technology" can be transferred to larger structures. They hold up quite well to forces, given their thickness, and are made out of found objects, in this case, old newspapers, flour and water. I often use a balloon to initially form the structure, not applicable to larger spaces, but any kind of framework would do just as well, as long as the layering material were able to span between the parts of the frame. 
     Not having space to build a build a house out of paper mache in my backyard, I started thinking about making other usable objects, that don't necessarily need to be destroyed at the end of a party. So I thought of lamp shades, mostly because my house is constantly blinding me with bare light bulbs due to our lack of them. This time I worked with fabric instead of paper, and tried to make the tapioca based glue liquid enough to paint with. The proportions I used at first were two cups water to one tablespoon tapioca flour, which I heated, mixed to a consistent solution, and cooled before using. (Note to self: hot glue tends to pop balloons, or at the very least change the shape of the balloon while under construction due to the heating and cooling of the air inside of the balloon). This left a thin layer of gooey glop that was thin enough to paint the fabric with and get it to stick to the balloon. But underneath, it seemed too watery. So after the first layer of fabric, I heated up the mixture and added another tablespoon of flour (okay, you got me, I didn't really measure this time, because the first time I ended up getting flour all over the stove - it has the consistency of corn starch and I poured it into the measuring spoon instead of scooping it out). This seemed thick enough for a second coat, or at least I had enough goo to get a second layer on. 
     We'll see what happens when it dries and then we can test it for toughness and how it reacts to heat. I'll keep you posted....