Have you ever wanted to make your own sculpture? You don’t have to be Auguste Rodin, Anish Kapoor, or Louise Bourgeois to be a sculptor! You can use materials readily available in your garden, neighborhood, and local park to design a nature sculpture. These sculptures can be glued together to keep for posterity, or stacked into a temporary art piece that you can disassemble and start again with new creativity from scratch. Happy creating!
MATERIALS
Any natural materials available near you! Ideas include:
- Rocks and/or pebbles
- Twigs and/or small branches
- Leaves of all varieties
- Tree cookies
- Your favorite flowers
- Sand
- Moss
TRY IT!
- Collect your favorite natural materials. Where did you find them? What colors do you like best? What are the different textures?
- Create your design! Here are some guiding questions to inspire you:
- Do you like architecture? Perhaps you could use sticks and twigs to create a structure and take on a natural materials engineering challenge.
- What do you know about henges? Learn about the most famous of them — Stonehenge — and use rocks to create your own henge!
- Have you heard of cairns before? They are stacked rock sculptures. How many rocks can you stack in a row?
- If you like classic sculptures, what are some ways to create a person out of natural materials?
- What about a natural mandala, creating a pattern on the floor that spreads out from the center?
- What appeals to you?
- Take it apart and keep making new art! How many ways can you combine your materials to create new sculptures? Be sure to take pictures of your creations!
