How to craft a colander for your dollhouse kitchen . . .

Our doll's finished pink paper mache colander.

       Our dolls use this colander to wash their fresh fruits from the market and veggies from the garden in. The fake holes allow food items to air-dry once wet. 

       This fun doll-sized colander is made from paper mache pulp, sculpted inside of a soup ladle. These ladles are common enough; you probably have one in your kitchen right now! However, it will take several warm sunny days to make a colander like this one and a little patience.

Different sizes of ladles make different looking dishware.

Supply List:

• a real human sized soup ladle
• either plastic wrap or kitchen aluminum foil
• papaer mache pulp
• masking tape
• acrylic paints: black, grey, silver, white and pink
• black permanent ink marker
• Mod Podge
• cardboard tube (like a toilet paper tube)
• white school glue

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Make sure you are working with a clean ladle. Cover it with either plastic wrap or kitchen foil. Tape this securely in place. You will be using it to shape the colander and afterwards the plastic or foil may be removed entirely and the ladle returned to it's place in the kitchen.
2. The inside shape of a ladle makes for a perfect tool to shape your doll's colander. It is the perfect size for an 18in doll to use inside of her play kitchen in fact. Mix together about 1/2 cup of paper mache pulp according to the directions on the package. It doesn't take much pulp to make the craft.
3. Layer the pulp inside of the ladle's end cup. Smooth the 1/4 inch layer till it is consistently the same thickness throughout and let it dry in the warm sunshine for a day. 
4. Once the pulp is ''set'' or dry, remove the foil or plastic along with it from the ladle. Then carefully peal away the plastic or foil. The underside of your pulp bowl may be still a little wet. Let this dry in the sunshine yet another day or so.
5. Once the bowl shape is hard to the touch, cut a 'foot' from the toilet paper tube and tape this to the bottom of the bowl. Reinforce the connection with white school glue and set it aside to harden again.
6. Use masking tape to smooth out the surface of the colander and prep it for painting. Try to keep the surface even with the tape; don't over-due the application.
7. Now paint the first layer with white. This will help the pink layer to "pop." Let it dry.
8. Paint the second and third layers hot pink.
9. Once the paint has dried. Use the permanent black ink marker to draw dots to look like holes across the surface. (see photo below)
10. Highlight the dots and patterns in the colander with silver acrylic paint. 
11. Coat the colander with Mod Podge for a professional looking finished surface.

Left, fill in the bottom hollow ring with pulp too. Right, the paper clay makes a nice
finished looking surface; ready to paint however you like...

Different views of the painted colander with and without veggies.