Not only is it rubbish. It's also going to be a whole load of poo.

I've been gazumped from my own drawing table by my particularly enthusiastic, self styled apprentice 7 year old daughter... A situation with it's downsides (ie trying to persuade her not to steal all the best bits of green packaging for her flower picture or we'll be eating soya beans for the rest of the week so that I can finish off my own latest creation...) but also advantages. Firstly, it takes a 7 year old to tell you, very honestly indeed, whats working and what just like soooo isn't. Plus she thinks the whole rubbish picture should be recycled including the base sheet the collage sits on, not just the materials used to create the actual image itself. She's got a point. So I set myself a little research project as to what I could use... Besides what else can I do but surf the net for ideas when I can't get elbow room at the workbench or glue pot?

It's amazing what you can just stumble across on the internet isn't it. I was thinking about making my own sheets of paper from mulching the food packaging that I don't use in the collages... but I think this is something more suitable for the summer and looks particularly messy and not compatible with my compulsively tidy husband, so that idea is on the back burner and whilst googling all sorts of paper products and recycling methods. I think I've found the best solution. POO.

How brilliant is that? Paper made out of poo. And not just any old poo. Elephant poo. No sh*t. well actually, yes sh*t. Lots of it. From real life big old flappy eared Sri Lanken elephants.

My googling has led me to Paper High, a Brighton based company providing eco-friendly handmade paper products from India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. They describe their paper production as:

All handmade paper is made using a fibreous material, and is boiled and beaten to make the fibre pulp. With elephant dung paper, the elephant has done the pulping for us, leaving us to collect the dung, clean it by boiling and steaming so all bacteria are killed, then putting the pulp in a shallow mould as usual. The coarseness of the paper is entirely dependent on the elephants diet, again making no two sheets identical.

I was delighted to find Paper High and they have been very helpful so are going to be the new official suppliers to Wallop for all my new poo requirements! :-)
I'm looking forward to my first batch of paper arriving so that I can crack on and create my first completely recycled Rubbish-picture-onto-Poo masterpiece. I can see the by line now: Perfect to be hung in the smallest room in the house?

And the best bit of this latest addition to my eco plan? My apprentice is now so busy rolling around on the floor laughing, I can get my desk back.