Tales from our table #9
Paper clay, fantasy maps, protecting our planet and traveling the world in stories. Plus a bunch of printable activity sheets for paid subscribers.
In these monthly tales from our art table (aka. The Kitchen Table), I hope to share an honest insight into the creative projects we embark on; successes, failures and the mess left behind. Creativity is at the heart of our family life, not just literally because it takes over the place where we eat, sit and talk, but also in the way we live and approach learning together. It permeates everything; mathematics, science, literature, the way we fix things that are broken and solve problems together as a family. So inevitably the paint covered brushes of our artworks will be mixed with the politics of our daily lives in these stories from our kitchen table.
For some context, I have two children, H who is 10 and F who is 7. We currently live life and home educate in South Australia, along with my partner.
It’s been a slow start to our year. I feel very privileged to be able to say that. I feel for many in the world it has been a chaotic and scary beginning to the year. Here in Australia mid December through to the end of January are the summer school holidays. Although we home educate and don’t really follow school terms, the school holidays still effect our weekly rhythm. Lots of the activities we attend stop and it’s also our opportunity to catch up with friends who do go to school. After a long break, I’m ready to get back into our more regular weekly routine.
For me, and my children, having a gentle routine to our weeks anchors us. It makes our days feel a bit more predictable and flow easier. It’s a balance between having some regular activities that we attend and having some downtime at home. We are fortunate that we live in an area with a thriving home education community. You could fill each day 3 times or more with different classes, activities and meet-ups. For us, being that busy would be too much. Its a juggling act of compromising between my son, who’s default is to stay home, and my daughters preference to go out and be with people at any given opportunity. I’m somewhere in between socially, but generally feel like I’m stuck in the middle just dropping all the balls!
THE CREATIVE STUFF
Over the summer we have launched into a variety of creative activities. I will share some with you below. At the end of the article I will share some links for paid subscribers to download lots of printable activity sheets for FREE.
PAPER MACHE CLAY
In the last few weeks we have been exploring all the things we can make with paper mache clay. I love that it's a pretty cheap material to make, dries really hard and is so versatile. I'm not an expert, but I will share what I have learnt and a few projects we created below.
If you want to delve deeper into this topic, I recommend checking out Ultimate Paper Mache>>>
Paper mache clay recipe:
1 1/4 Cup of soaked paper pulp with some of the water squeezed out
1 Cup of dry wall joint compound
3/4 Cup PVA glue
1 Cup flour
Making the clay:
To make the paper mache clay, first rip the paper you are using and soak in water. Absorbent paper like news print or toilet paper is easiest but you can use other paper, you will just meed to soak them for longer first.
Once you paper is fully soaked and the fibers have broken down, drain the mixture and squeeze out about half of the water. This isn't very exact, I recommend checking out this video for a more detailed explanation.
Put the paper pulp, dry wall compound and PVA glue into a bowl and mix. You can either mix with your hand or use a stick blender. Gradually add the cup of flour until you reach the right consistency. A softer consistency is good for spreading thinly over surfaces, ticker is best if you want to sculpt more textured surfaces.
Now your clay is ready to use. You can store it in an air tight container in the fridge for over a week.
Making a structure to cover:
With paper mache clay, you need a base structure to cover. This can be made from cardboard, wood, masking tape and even molded aluminum foil. If you're using cardboard, I recommend using a double layer of corrugated cardboard, otherwise the moisture from the clay will make the card structure warp.
So far we have created mirror frames, a tigers head and Yayoi Kusama inspired flowers. To create the Kusama flower, we used a template you can find in my Yayoi Kusama printable activity bundle. I will share a link for paid subscribers to download the printable for FREE at the end of this article.
FANTASY MAPS
Creating fantasy maps has been another great project we have loved over the last few weeks. This simple activity inspires so much imagination and creativity. Plus you can learn about all the elements used to create a map like a key and coordinates at the same time.
You can find the Fantasy Map Printable that we used here on my website. For paid subscribers to CREATIVE SPACES, I will share a link for you to download the printable for FREE at the end of this article.
PLANET PROTECTORS CLUB
My daughter recently began a new club with her friends called the Planet Protectors Club. She made a plan of all the materials and equipment she would need, researched relevant books and documentaries and prepared everything to take with us to a recent home school camp. At the camp she invited friends to come and join the club, to colour in animals pictures and create climate action posters.
In a world that feels like it is spiraling out of control with countries actively choosing to go in the wrong direction with regards to tackling the climate crisis, this little moment of a 7 year old deciding to take action, organise and do something positive felt good. The problem is, if we the adults, leave it to our children to sort out, it will be too late!
BOOKS WE HAVE LOVED
I love to travel. However, partly due to living where we do (flights from Australia to anywhere are expensive), partly due to not having disposable income and partly due to the environmental impact of travel, in the last 6 years I have only left Australia once. Sometimes in our quiet little corner, I feel very disconnected from the rest of the world. So, in the last few months we have been taking a journey in the books we read.
We have chosen books that feature stories from different locations and cultures around the world and it has been wonderful. My favourites from our growing collection have been The Last Bear and Turtle Moon by Hannah Gold. Both are environmental stories about a child’s connection to nature and how this effects their relationship with their family. One is set on Bear Island in the Arctic circle, just south of Svalbard and the other is set in the Costa Rican rain forest. We also enjoyed Asha and the Spirit Bird by Jasbinder Bilan which is about 2 friends’ journey across the Himalayas in Northern India. If you’re looking for a story about Australia, I would highly recommend Runt by Craig Silvey which tells the tale of Annie and her dog Runt who try to save their outback town and family farm.
We created a map to record the locations of the books we have read and will continue adding to it throughout the year. If you have any book recommendations for me suitable for 8-12yr olds that feature a specific country, let me know in the comments.
SIMPLE KID-MADE CRAFTS
I will leave you today with the message that creative activities with kids don’t need to be expensive or involve complicated processes and instructions. Kid made, up-cycled crafts are the best!
My monthly ‘Tales from our Table’ articles will always be free, but if you are looking to more creative ideas, to delve deeper into art techniques or to receive free printables, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to Creative Spaces.
Below I will share links for PAID SUBSCRIBERS to download my Yayoi Kusama activity sheets and templates, the Fantasy Maps printable, Climate Action posters and Endangered Animal printables.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Creative Spaces to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.