Bryan Gallagher, age 9, of Cleveland, Ohio, for his question:

What kind of material is papier mache?

Papier mache is a French name and by rights that last letter should wear above its head a sloping line, like a cocky little French hat. Trays and trinkets made of papier mache are often artistic objects. The French, of course, are artistic people so maybe they invented papier mache.

Papier is the French word for paper. The•way they say it; it sounds like POP ee ay. Mache is the French word for chewed. And it is pronounced MOSH ay. Andy says it in a more American way. He calls it paper mache    and the mache is pronounced in much the same way as in French. Papier mache and paper mache both mean "chewdd paper" but nobody     really chews up the mixture to make it. However, the main ingredient is paper scads and scads of paper torn up into raggedy little scraps.

Andy's first paper mache object was made from ordinary newspaper    naturally. The mold he used was a flowerpot with sloping sides and much wider at the top. His cat Rama helped him to shred the paper. At last the shaggy pile weighed as much as half a pound of butter. Andy put it into a big bowl and added half a measuring cup of water. Rama hates moisture so he lost interest in the next step. But old Andy had a fine time mushing, mashing and squeezing the moist mixture through his fingers. At last, it really did look like a bowl full of wet, well chewed paper.

It was time to turn the flowerpot upside down for a mold: He slap dabbed wads of the mushy mixture all around the outside of the pot. He tried to keep this first layer even in thickness. Then he added more even layers. When all the mache was dabbed on the mold, he patted the outside smooth. He could have let it dry by a radiator    but instead he set it outdoors in the golden sunshine.

When the mache was as dry as a bone, it was easy to lift it off the mold. It was a perfect copy of the flowerpot, only just a bit bigger. Then came the fun of the decorative designs. Andy could have added his cheerful colors with oil paints    but they take too long to try. So he used his razzle dazzle tempra paints. He painted several coats of glossy varnish over every speck on the inside and the outside with a,clear, waterproof paint. After this, Andy was ready to set a real plant in the flowerpot model. Then he put this inside the finished paper mache model and you should see it.

Experts add other ingredients to the moist mache to make their works of art firmer and more durable. You can add size, glue, clay, rosin or a hobby store mache mix. When one of these tacky ingredients is added, the moist mush is very sticky. But you can handle it with clean hands if you seal it inside a squeezable plastic bag. For added decor on your mache works of art, you need some strong glue. You can stick on twirly designs with stringy cord or bright fake gems or assorted cutouts.

Another kind cif paper mache is made with dry little shreds of paper. You need a separate supply of a tacky type paste. Glue the shreds over the mold, slightly overlapping. Wait for this layer to dry, then add another and another layer until your model is the right thickness. An expert can build a round bracelet in mache layers, instead of modeling the mush around a mold. Some experts use wire frames and pad them with glued layers of paper to make faces and figures.