The trick is to turn something simple into something special. Make a monkey from a tea towel, a relief from a soap, a stamp from a cork, a sundial from cardboard, a chess piece from a bottle. Develop your communication skills with a puppet theater at your fingertips. Prove that rays of light are rectilinear. And what have the eyes to do with the soul?
Folding tea towels
The Japanese call paper folding in an artful way ‘origami ‘. You don’t always have colored paper at hand: don’t worry, use the tea or towel! Slowly build your skill until you can create a monkey, a dog, or something else in the blink of an eye. Take a photo of it, send it and collect. Can we already call you ‘towel origamist (e)’?
Reliefs of soap
Ever looked at the beautiful reliefs of the Egyptians? Maybe you would like to make those too. Try it with a soap! Dip the soap in hot water and you can work it quickly. As a tool you use a nail file. Try out all the possibilities and make your first soap sculpture. A beautiful bust (bust) looks good on your bedside table. You can easily practice modeling, clays, ‘sculptures’ with shaving cream: fleeting art.
The straight path of the light
Light spreads in straight lines. That means that if the light doesn’t hit us, it is still there. Sometimes we forget that when we are in the dark. That is why we say: behind the clouds the sun shines. But can we also prove that? Yes, you can do it yourself as follows: Poke holes in the center of two cardboard plates. Place the plates vertically with 40 cm between them. With a flashlight you shine through the holes on one side and on the other side you look through the hole of the second cardboard. You can see that the light from the flashlight reaches your eye exactly through the holes. Then you move one cardboard and the light is gone. Draw your own conclusion. Tip: Use books to raise the flashlight to the correct height and make cardboard stands to hold the plates upright. That is how it works.
Stamp with a cork
Collect corks from now on. It’s nice if you can simply stamp your initials or anything else that comes to mind. Use your pocket knife to work the cork. Try out all kinds of ‘inks’: red wine, strong coffee, jam, shoe polish, etc. Newspapers, paper and napkins are good to try out. You get a continuous pattern if you work a cork all around and put a toothpick in it on both sides. Just roll!
How do you make a sundial?
Sometimes you come across a sundial in a chic garden or on old walls. With sundials you know what time it is, there must be sun. A little tinkerer just makes one himself. Move to an area in the yard that is not shaded by trees, houses, etc. Take a cardboard plate and round it. A diameter of 30 cm is ok. Now insert a stick through the center of the plate and press it firmly into the ground so that the plate rests firmly on the grass. Most of the stick sticks up. When the sun is shining and the hands on your watch indicate a full hour, say 10 o’clock, then draw a line across the shadow of the stick to the edge of the plate. You can write the time next to the line, for example 10 o’clock. After every full hour you draw a line for the new time. Done. Because the Earth rotates around its axis at a constant speed, the position of the Sun changes relative to the Earth, which makes the shadows ‘move’. If you keep an eye on the length of the shadow during the day, it will give you a lot of advantage in the drawing class.
Create chess pieces
Playing chess with your own pieces is a dream come true. Collect mini bottles, 16 of transparent glass and 16 of dark glass. With the help of paper, toothpicks, felt-tip pen, napkins and fantasy you can now create your dream design chess game. Tip: you can use roll-up pads for the chessboard, easy to take with you!
Play puppet theater
If you are fascinated by a puppet show, you need to develop some skills early. A small presentation for your sisters and brothers will soon be there. Now the practice: make puppets from sugar bags, toothpicks, cut-out portraits, passport photos, etc. Toothpicks are used for the arms. Stick the portraits on the sugar bags and use your fingers as the legs of the marionettes. First, practice in front of the mirror. Every day for a while and after a while you can already have a nice chat. And then: silence: it begins.
Taste with light
We often overlook everyday phenomena. An experiment: slowly open the door to an unlit room. You will notice that as more light enters the room, you can distinguish more things in the room. That’s because things are only visible through the light they reflect and your eye catches. You don’t see a sea of light when you close your eyes. The difference between light and dark objects is that light objects reflect a lot of light and dark objects absorb a lot of light. The expression ‘the eyes are the mirrors of the soul’ means that your eyes reflect what is going on in your soul (mind). Are you in love? Your eyes will shine, just look in the mirror. Mothers are very good at reading their children’s eyes: they are closely associated with them.