Articles in this substance are made of cuttings of white or brown paper, boiled in water, and beaten in a mortar, till they are reduced to a kind of paste, and then boiled with a solution of gum-arabic or of size, to give tenacity to the paste, which is afterwards formed into different articles, by pressing it into oiled moulds. When dry, the work is done over with a mixture of size and lamp-black, and afterwards varnished. The black varnish for these articles is prepared as follows:—Some colophony, or turpentine boiled down till it becomes black and friable, is melted in a glazed earthen vessel, and thrice as much amber in fine powder is sprinkled in by degrees, with the addition now and then of a little spirit or oil of turpentine. When the amber is melted, the same quantity of sarcoolla is sprinkled in, and the ingredients are stirred, and more spirit of turpentine is added, until the whole becomes fluid; it is then strained clear through a coarse hair bag, pressing it gently between hot boards. This varnish, mixed with ivory-black in fine powder, is applied, in a hot room, on the dried paper paste, which is then set in a gently heated oven, next day in a hotter oven, and the third day in a very hot one, and allowed to remain each time till the oven grows cold. The paste thus varnished is hard, durable, and glossy, and is not affected by moisture or even by hot liquids. The better kinds of papier maché work are prepared in the following manner:—Porous paper, saturated with a solution of flour and glue, is placed in repeated layers upon a metal mould of somewhat smaller size than the required object, a drying heat of about a 100° being used between the layers, of which there are about ten for an ordinary tea-tray, but the number varies with the nature of the article. When a sufficient thickness has been attained, the shell is removed from the mould and is planed and filed to shape. Various coats of varnish are then laid on, and the article is stoved after each varnishing. The article is next smoothed with pumice-stone, and the artist then steps in and ornaments the work in bronze powder, gold, colours, &c., after which several coats of shell-lac varnish are added, and the article having been stoved at a heat of 280°, is polished with rotten-stone and oil, and is finished off by hand-rubbing.

Articles in papier maché are subject to two great faults, namely, inappropriateness and over-decoration. The manufacturer is not content to execute in this material such articles as tea-trays, screens, portfolios, ink-stands, work-boxes, &c., but he invades the domain of other materials, by executing chairs, tables, piano-fortes, &c., for which papier maché is not suited. The articles are also usually over-loaded with ornament; and the free use of mother-of-pearl becomes objectionable, especially when it is employed in landscapes to represent the moon, a river, or a ruined tower. In contrasting some articles in japanned ware from Japan and China, with similar articles of English make, the jury of the Great Exhibition of 1851, in remarking on the good taste of the former, and the bad taste of the latter, observed, that "vulgar forms and bad ornament are not necessarily connected with cheap manufacture."

Sharp and well-defined architectural ornaments in papier maché are prepared by glueing sheets of brown paper together, pressing the mass into a metal mould, and when the moulded paper has been trimmed to shape, a composition of paper-pulp, mixed with resin and glue, is put into the mould, and the paper impression being again inserted is pressed upon the pulp composition, which permanently adheres to it. Carton-pierre ornaments (which are lighter and stronger than those of plaster of Paris) are made of paper-pulp, mixed with whiting and glue pressed into plaster piece-moulds, backed with paper, and when sufficiently set, are hardened by drying in a hot room.