[July 01, 2011] Boone class to attempt papier-mache world record Tweet Jun 06, 2011 (Charleston Daily Mail - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Sherman High School students hope to prove themselves through a combination of school spirit and artistic creativity today. Members of the Boone County high school's sophomore class are attempting to break the Guinness World Record for the largest papier-mache sculpture ever created. They will begin creating their sculpture at 9 a.m. and hope to be finished by 7 p.m. Tristan Bowen, a 16-year-old sophomore from Ashford, collaborated on the idea with his art teacher, Cheryl Judy. The sculpture will be of a ship, which is the school's mascot. "I was thinking of a way to make our class stand out. I want to show that we're not just nobody, that we can do something nobody else has done before," he said. "I really want to put our school on the map for something." Judy, a 52-year-old Marmet resident, said the sculpture will stand 101 inches tall, and the circumference will be 38 feet. The previous record was seven and a half feet tall and 23 feet in circumference. "We're trying to beat it by at least a foot high and 10 feet in circumference," she said. Students will use 60 empty boxes to construct the ship. They have diagramed a design for it including masts and sails. Adhesives are banned from the project, according to Guinness rules. Students will put masking tape on the boxes and will papier-mache with a flour, salt and water mixture, Judy said. To comply with Guinness rules, the students will live Web cast the creation in 3-hour increments. "We're trying to document it as much as we can," Judy said. The school tried to collect donations to fly a Guinness representative to the school. But that would have cost between $8,000 and $10,000, Bowen said. "We don't have $8,000 to $10,000 on hand," he said. "We tried to sell advertising spots, but that was only $200. We took that and got our materials." Three advertisements will appear on the sculpture, as well as an "S" for Sherman and "T" for Tide. Between 25 and 36 sophomores will participate, Judy said. There are more than 100 in the sophomore class, and participants will be allowed to miss their classes today. "It's the next to the last day of school so it's no big deal," Judy said. The school has never attempted to break a world record before. Judy said parents have supported the project since it began. The ship will then be dismantled and rebuilt during the 2013 commencement ceremony. "I'm just hoping we can actually fulfill it," Bowen said. "That's really my only worry. Everybody's so excited about it." Contact writer Melanie Hoffman at [email protected] or 304-348-4886. To see more of the Khaleej Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.khaleejtimes.com. Copyright (c) 2011, Charleston Daily Mail, W.Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]