Tufted Pajak from Trash: Explora Maker In Residence

Trash can be beautiful!

That’s what I explored as the Maker In Residence at Explora, Albuquerque’s children’s museum. Ask anyone raised in Albuquerque about Explora and see their eyes light up. After having the museum as my “third place” for the better half of 2025, I was delighted to be selected as a Maker In Residence for May/June.

My Pajak hanging at Explora

During this period of time, I asked Explora to collect their paper waste. I processed this into pigmented paper pulp using tempera paint and bentonite clay. In workshops held at Explora throughout June, I led hundreds of children through the process of painting with paper pulp! The New Mexico Creative Industries Division even came out to a workshop and documented it.

I then took those dried pieces of paper (the ones that weren’t taken home!) and cut them into circles. I used those circles, along with paper-mâché beads I made from the leftover pulp, to create a mobile. Take a look at the process in my reel here.

Inspired by Polish straw mobiles called Pajaki (pah-yonk-ee), my five-layered mobile was made with crepe paper, paper straws, hedgehog pom-pom’s, yarn pom-poms, and three tufted shapes hanging from the bottom!

Traditionally made with straw and paper around the winter months to bring protection and cheer, Pajak means “spider.” Looking at masterpieces from these folk artisans, it’s not hard to understand why these intricate pieces were named after spider webs. I owe quite a lot to Karolina Merska and her book Making Mobiles.

Now On View at Explora

1701 Mountain Road NW, Albuquerque, NM
On the second floor near the bike tight-rope

View from the bottom

Hedgehog Pom-Poms

The finished piece hanging in my garage (the only place in the house tall enough to hang it!)