Modelling with air drying clay

Have you used air drying clay before? It’s not too messy and quite easy for young children to use – my 5-year-old had no problem manipulating the clay into the shapes she wanted. The girls had wooden skewers and scissors to use to cut and make marks with but mostly just used their hands. The clay warms to the touch and is a great work out for fine motor skills.

The clay does dry out and turn hard just by being left to sit, with no oven or kiln baking needed, but you do need to be patient and let the models dry out thoroughly so they are then robust enough to play with. How long it takes will depend on the size of your models and the weather – thinner models will dry out faster than big, thick ones. Ours all dried out over night.

(an expedition by sledge)

And what did they make? A camping expedition! If you follow NurtureStore on Facebook you might have seen the chat yesterday about camping with kids. We’ve just bought a tent and are planning our first camping trip – but you can see the kids couldn’t wait and made a camping play set of their own.

(warming up around the camp fire)

Once your models are dry you can leave them as they are or add colours. Acrylic paint with a coat of varnish over the top is perhaps the best option for a long-lasting design but the girls set their hearts on using oil pastels. While this isn’t likely to be very durable they were really pleased with the way their colours and the texture turned out.

(sheltering from the rain)

More modelling ideas

Tempted to try out some modelling? You might like these ideas too:

:: salt dough creatures – a homemade recipe for when the craft cupboard is bare

:: clay or salt dough candle holders

:: outdoor clay tree sculptures

:: or how about cement art tiles?

And if you stop by tomorrow I’ll show you the Kids Art Explorers Paper Free Art land the girls made for their clay models.

Play dough and cocktail sticks

You know we use play dough at lot in our house. I think it might just be the one play material we’d pick above all others. We’ve played with it week in week out for almost nine years! I’ve talked before about how much learning can be included in playdough play but the key thing to get the most from it is to mix things up a little. In my Let’s Play Dough e-book (which you can download for free, just click on the link) I’ve given you a list of 52 different materials to combine with your dough – so if you want, you can have a whole year’s worth of new play dough experiences. Take a look and see if there’s something there you’ve never used.

This week we’ve been mixing things up by adding cocktail sticks to our playdough. If you saw our Mad Hatter’s Tea Party you’ll know the cocktail sticks were intended to make an edible hedgehog – but B knows a great playdough idea when she sees one!

She wondered if the playdough would work as a ‘glue’ to hold the cocktail sticks together – and look what happened.

Triangles and squares began to appear – and lots of wondering and experimenting started happening. Could you make it bigger? Could  you mix different shapes together? Could you build up?

L was playing along to, and she discovered the cocktail sticks give your playdough extra strength, to build tall strong creatures…

and re-inforced homes for them to live in.

Mix up your play dough

Are you playing with play dough this week? What could you add in to give your children a different experience this time?

If you’ve already tried playdough with cocktail sticks maybe you could try twigs, straws, art , shells or candles?

happily shared with link and learn

This year we are undertaking lots of different art experiments. We’re exploring materials, techniques and styles and seeing where our creativity takes us. We’re celebrating the process of art: trying new things, having a go, being daring, making mistakes. We’re interested how things turn out but much more focused on the fun we have along the way.

Would you like to join our Kids Art Explorers? We’re going to pick a new material or process to try in each month – something which is easy for you to get hold of and which you can try out with your children. The Nurturestore kids will have a play and see what art they come up with, and I’ll share the results of our experimenting with you. We’ll also invite you to join in, try out the material for yourselves and share with us what you come up with.

Let’s encourage our kids to be Art Explorers! We’ll provide a little inspiration each month and let’s see how all our children around the world interpret the idea. There’s no deadline, no pressure to join in every month. So why not give it a try and bring some new experiences to your creative kids?

Kids Art Explorers Project One: pipe cleaners

What can your kids create with pipe cleaners? They’re a great material for children to explore as are they are tactile, flexible and colourful. You can use them by themselves or combine them with other materials, and they’re easy to join together. Very young children can join in too – just remember to twist over the metal ends of the pipe cleaners so they don’t get any scratches.

Here’s our first creation for the Kids Art Explorers club: meet Polly!

Polly Pipecleaner was made by my 8-year-old using just pipe cleaners and some paper for her face, stuck on with sticky tape. (Follow the Kids Art Explorers project and you’ll soon discover my kids loathe waiting for glue to dry and adore sticky tape instead!)

B took a box of pipe cleaners, started twisting and made a triangle. This triangle said ‘dress’ to her and so she added legs, arms and a head and Polly was born. The flexibility of pipe cleaners mean they make excellent puppets as you can move your character’s limbs and cast cool shadows.

What will you make with pipe cleaners this month? The Kids Art Explorers Pinterest board has some other ideas to inspire you – but please take these as a springboard for your kids own ideas and see what they can create.

Share your kids pipe cleaner art with us

When your children have made something, please come and share it with us. We’re celebrating kids art exploring so whatever you make, however it turns out, whether it’s complex, messy or simple, we would love to see it.

::  There is a linky here, so if you are a blogger please link up.

:: If you’re not a blogger, take a photo and post it on our Facebook page.

:: All creations will be featured on the Kids Art Explorers Pinterest board, our very own on-line art gallery. (If you’d like an invitation to join Pinterest, leave a comment below, with your e-mail address not in the comment message for all to see but in the signature box instead, and I will be very happy to send you one.)