paint cut paste

you may remember that we made some lovely little pinch pots out of air dry red clay a couple weeks ago. well, i just wanted to give a little update on how we decided to embellish them.

i’m a huge fan of acrylic inks. i have a few colors from dick blick, so i decided to get them out and introduce them to N. she has seen me use them with a very fine brush, but she’s never used the inks and the script liner brush herself – until now.

she said she wanted to make “teeny little marks” on her pot, and set out to paint it in great detail.

we had such a great and quiet little art making session… it’s almost like the intricacy of the marks we made brought out a really mellow mood in us both.

as an art therapist, i often choose materials for clients that are a metaphor for what they are experiencing or that are like a holistic artistic prescription for what emotions they’re needing to work through. i often present materials to my daughter based on her energy level and feeling state, or to provide balance for what she might be needing in that moment. this art activity reminded me how materials can elicit a response – when N works in a small scale, she tends to get quiet, and when working with large, broad strokes, her energy tends to match.

what have you noticed about how materials affect your little artist(s)?

as a kid, i loved making useful little pots and dishes, and i figured my little one would, too! i got some amaco self hardening clay from michael’s for the occasion. i really love the earthy red/adobe color, though it comes in white and gray, too.

we each took a little chunk of the clay for ourselves and began to roll it into a ball.

little hands and earth

when we rolled it on the table, a fun side-effect was the marks it made on our paper below, so we played with that for a while. process. process.

pinch pots begin to take shape by first pressing one’s thumb into the center of the sphere.

next, i showed N how to use equal pressure with her thumb and forefinger to pinch her way slowly around the sphere, until a bowl-like shape formed.

she took great care to smooth the cracks and crumbles with her finger by “petting” the clay.

the pot in the foreground is one that i made alongside N, to model the technique, so as not to put my fingerprints on her piece. i feel like clay is like that – it takes the shape intended by its sculptor, and the fingerprints on it are part of the artist’s mark.

N was so proud of her pot after smoothing it out.

and now we just wait patiently for them to dry… up on a high shelf where our cats won’t lick them.

i knew it was only a matter of time before we made one of these. we’re big fans of snowglobes over here. this is a new one my sister gave us this year as a gift. lovely, huh?

i’ve sort of been intimidated by the whole snow globe thing — what with eggshells and different oils inside in all of those instructions i see online. then i decided it didn’t need to be all that complex. we had all four things in our home that we needed, lucky for us, as N has quite a bad cold right now and we can’t really run to the store. we gathered up a clear jar, glitter, polymer clay (sculpey), and a plastic trinket for inside. oh, and water! just water.

we opened the jar and put a ball of the sculpey clay on the inside of the lid. N chose a plastic cinderella from her sandtray toys outside to put inside of the snow globe. okay, so it’s not christmasy… but she can display it year round in her bedroom. we stuck the cinderella securely into the clay.

then we sprinkled lots of glitter and some tiny shiny confetti into the jar.

N filled the jar with water. (yes, our sink got glittered.)

(nevermind the tea cup and egg pan from breakfast)

then i put hot glue around the top edge of the jar and screwed the lid on. this seals the jar from leaking.

we let it dry for a bit…

and voila! cinderella (all fancied up with a blue sash for the ball) was enjoying a blizzard of fancy sparkles!

N and i tried this new (to us) clay out called paperclay that i got from my boyfriend, dick blick. (i heart dick blick.)

i love the texture of this stuff! it’s non-toxic, smooth and easy to mold, and it air-dries within 1-3 days without getting all cracked and dried out. (you can also expedite the drying process of it by baking it.) we had fun playing with it and squishing it around for a while (and N thought it smelled like glue… uh, has she been sniffing glue?)

N wanted to make some animals out of the paperclay, naturally.

carving details into her cat's face

she asked me to make a dragon for her, and she created a cat and a small turtle.

we took a long weekend vacation, and when we returned, the clay was dry, of course. we had a good time painting it with tempera paints. (you can also use acrylic paint or markers to color the paint.)

after the three animals were painted, N wanted to use the extra paint to paint each of their portraits!

i thought that was such a sweet idea… say cheese, animal friends!

we’re definitely going to do more sculpting with paperclay soon! (gosh, i wish i got paid for these reviews/endorsements! oh well… it’s all for art’s sake, right?)

after making so many wooden easter and springtime friends, N really wanted to make more out of “clay.” since we don’t have a kiln over here, i busted out the model magic, and she got down to business.

N made lots of eggs and a caterpillar. i also helped her make the 2 spring chickies you see above, and a bunny.

it took two days for the model magic eggs to dry (they’re dense, even though they’re lightweight.) when they were ready, we painted them with acrylics. we first had a lesson in what-happens-to-each-color-of-the-rainbow-when-mixed-with-white-paint? PASTELS FOR SPRING!

we had a little painting party…

we probably got more paint on our hands than the figures and eggs, but it was all good clean fun.

we loved decorating our home with our new little spring sculptures…

we are feeling springy over here this week… the trees are already pink and white with blossoms and it’s been in the mid to upper 60s this week. yesterday N and i went for a long afternoon walk around our neighborhood, looking for treasures and for signs of spring.

we meandered through streets, ducked through bushes, gazed up at trees… we collected all sorts of nature’s gifts, like leaves, sticks, berries, acorns, seeds, flowers… the sweet friends the earth has put in our new california neighborhood. we are still acclimating to our new digs, and feeling our way through the scenery out here. the specimens we gathered were like evidence of our move; like clues to our new surroundings. we studied them.

getting personal with a palm tree

when the sun was setting and we made our way home, i remembered a cool project i’d just seen in a very cool book N got for her birthday last month called nature’s art box. (i also recognized it from the artful parent blog as well.) the project was about making a clay fossil to preserve the textures and shapes of natural objects in sculpey.

bag of goodies

when we got home, we looked over each treasure while putting it into a bowl on our table. we talked about what it was and where we found it.

then, i busted out our trusty box of sculpey, and we went to work making and squishing little balls of the polymer clay.

then we pressed some of the objects into the clay to make textured discs. like little thumbprints from mother nature.

granted, scupley is not my most favorite clay to use with kids, as it can be toxic while baking. so, i made sure to do that part after N was asleep on the other end of the house with kitchen windows open and her door closed. (next time, i may try my trusty model magic and see if that works…)

after the discs were baked, i put them onto a pretty plate that we often keep on our nature table or altar.

i wrote with a brown sharpie on the backs of them what the object was, the city, and the date. N is enjoying examining them and guessing what made the print. they’re a good size for her to carry around and be proud of, too. it’d be nice to poke a hole in the top of some (or all) of the discs with a straw before baking to make pendants or ornaments out of them, too. i enjoy the white of them, but they may also be nice if painted (a light watercolor wash, perhaps) or glazed.

i loved doing this activity – mostly the walking, talking, and paying attention to so many intimate details. seeing the world through N’s big, new eyes always keeps things fresh for me. i’d love to repeat this activity in different places, like on a beach vacation, almost like a 3-d photo album from a trip, without the photos.

okay, it’s not revolutionary to play with play-doh… but it is a staple of childhood. opening a canister of play-doh set my olfactory memory off on a trip to the 70s, squeezing dough hair through plastic heads in my play-doh hair factory. as an adult and a mom, i usually opt to make my own play dough with N, but sometimes the neon colors and unmatched squishiness of play-doh is irresistible.

so when N got play-doh AND dough tools for her birthday last week, i was psyched to have an excuse to use the stuff again! she can sit for HOURS (literally, it’s magic) and sing, play, create, chatter, rhyme. (in fact, she is playing with it right now as i type this beside her.)

my sister (N’s aunt kim) gave N a a set of dough tools that melissa and doug makes, and N is loving these… 3 rolling pins, stamps, and a dough cutter. mix this with some good ol’ cookie cutters, kid-safe scissors, and some of her tiny toy figurines, and she’s off and running for an entire morning.

so i had to give a little nod to the creators of this modeling compound in all of its fluorescently pliable unnaturalness for the guilt-free momma-time it provides while productively stimulating kids’ minds, hands, and senses for decades.