I picked up Silly Putty for the children to play with this week. Of course, that sounds a lot simpler, and more humdrum than it was, totally leaving out the details of my epic, aisle by aisle, search for Silly Putty through every store in town.
I won't bore you with the details, except to say, that after all the work it took to find the stuff, I was pretty determined to get an art project out of the deal, before letting it go to the children for the usual bouncy, stretchy, print-making type of putty play they had in mind.
So, I asked them to take the putty, and use it to form faces, as a favor for me.
I had in mind stretching the putty faces into a Munch style study by way of "The Scream"...
...and even had a library book, left over from our Kandinsky-ish cookies, standing by to go with it.
But then, sort of on a side-thought, I remembered a note about color being used to change the mood of the African Mask Art at All Things Beautiful, and on a whim, threw a few different colored sheets out on the table to place under the faces. We didn't really notice a change in mood...
...so much as a change in color. Even with the forest smoke filled air castinng a very non-photogenic gloom over our dining room, look how amazingly different the exact same putty appeared on the different colors of construction paper.
It was surprising, and so much more interesting than the "Scream" faces I'd had in mind. Munch can always wait until next time.
10 comments:
Cool! And I just found a recipe for Silly Putty you can make at home...just think of all the color combinations!!
This is fascinating! I wonder why this happens?
I had a bunch of different colors of silly putty when I was a kid, and I used to mold them into clothing for small plastic animals and dolls.
You might just be the most creative mom on the planet! I just love seeing what you all are up to.
Blessings, Dawn
Our library made silly putty with the kids at the Summer Reading Program this summer and sent home a recipe. I was going to suggest that you use a homemade silly putty recipe, too.
I love this. We had been noticing lately how the same color looks different when combined with different colors. I may have to use a similar idea with my kids to further the thought we have been discussing. :)
That is way too cool! Who knew? :-) It's been a long time since we had silly putty in the house.
Christy and Phyllis - This all started with a recipe of homemade silly putty - one part glue to two parts liquid starch - turns out more like a stiff slime (still very cool) than silly putty. We've used the Borax recipe in the past - that one will pick up the news print - and have had varying success with the glue and starch recipe. The kids wanted the "real thing" for comparison. It's pretty cheap, and more fun than I remembered - even my 16 year old got a kick out of it.
I love all the great creations!
That is so cool! We saw a similar effect with black and white backgrounds at a science show recently - this would be a great follow-up for my kids.
(The tech wasn't letting me comment on your blog last week for some reason. Glad it likes me again now. :-))
Oh. We love silly putty!
I need to pick up some silly putty, the kids would love it.
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