SLUniverse Forums

Cocoanut Koala · 04-13-2008, 11:04 PM

I started thinking about this when talking about my poor light bulb lady in the other thread.

But there was one art project that was absolutely fascinating. I was in second grade for this one, and we did it at the Unitarian Church, in our second grade class.

Wax Castles!

Now mind you, this was before teachers were so safety-inclined, I guess, because I would not have tried this with my Brownies.

Anyway, what it was was hot melted wax, colored somehow, so that there were pink, blue, green, purple, etc., colors to choose from

Then we had Dixie cups - which were cut in half, I believe.

And a deep sink full of cold water.

We would take the Dixie cup, with melted wax of our desired color (I think the teacher poured it into the cups for us) and take them to the sink, then plunge them straight down into the water.

Voila! Beautiful castle-like sculptures that hardened instantly!

The wax would flow up, then instantly harden where it was flowing. By the time you were at the bottom of the sink with it (very little time, actually), you had a castle in a cup!

(I took these home without breaking them, thank God, so there was no trauma associated with this particular crafts project.)

coco

Siyu Suen · 04-13-2008, 11:09 PM

Cooool!! I completely approve of making castles!

My mother and I used to make sugar cookie castles instead of gingerbread houses (we didn't like gingerbread much, but loooved mom's sugar cookies). We used to have little gum drop crenelations and we would make candy weapons for our Playmobile figures

I also used to love playing with the cheese wax that came off of Babybell cheese. I'd make all sorts of sculptures but they didn't tend to age too well...

Oh! another thing I really loved, and got really good at, were tin foil sculptures! It's very easily moldable into shapes and we used to have this diarama battle on one of the shelves while we were growing up, and as we made new creatures and people out of tin foil we'd position them like they were fighting

Hahaha fun but hardly organized "crafts"

Brave Republic · 04-14-2008, 08:45 AM

We had an awsome art teacher in grade school. we did "Pop art" muck like Andy Warhol, I think I did a giant boxs of FAB or Brillo? We did tye die and batik shirts too. Looking back on this she prolly was on peyote tabs half the time, but she was a fun teacher.

As for my own crafts, I got into making dioramas and custom , you guessed it, war scenes. I customized and modded airfix 1/72nd (HO Scale) figures making Civil war era Zouves from French Foreign legion figures and adding cartridge bioxes and painted tissue paper blanket rolls etc. Plaster, chalk dust and twigs would complete the base and usually ther'd be a theme. One that won me some awards was a Civil War theme titled: "Sniper" anmd was a dreary mud and rut filled road with a lone tree denuded by artillery. a non-desceript confederate corpse lay half into a sunken mudhole aith a shelter half covering the top portion. In the road a horse and rider with horse rearing back and rider clutching at his chest. The symmetry, theme, scale and the execution of the idea were things noted. I think I did another with wounded being helped to the rear - WWI theme.

(NB A few years back I got into doing the same kinds of things in 1/6th scale! --but too time consuming and space issues to store them!)

I have other hobbies too--maybe some other time

Raindrop Drinkwater · 04-14-2008, 01:11 PM

Not exactly a craft, but, when I was about 8, we built a couple of ovens with stones, mud and grass. That's the funniest thing ever. Imagine a bunch of kids in gummi boots, carrying buckets of mud all over the place!

And then we made our own bread and pizza! YEAH!

Humps · 04-14-2008, 06:06 PM

As a kid at Sunday School (Indeed....I am not a total heathen)....we were given a sheet of sugar paper. We had to cover the paper in all different colours of wax crayon as thickly as we could. When we had done this we had to cover the entire creation with a layer of black crayon even thicker. (I remember it so well because my hands have still not recovered from all that pressure!)

Then we were given pencils with no lead in them and the idea was to draw a picture through the black wax and all the different colours underneath would show through.

It was quite effective. I drew a donkey (there were donkeys in the bible I recall). I also drew a TR7 because not knowing my own mind I was at the time in love with Purdey from the New Avengers

I do know that there were no TR7's in the bible but they were made by Triumph and apparantly Jesus entered Jerusalem in triumph so I was not far off the mark

Kalia Meiklejohn · 04-14-2008, 08:11 PM

When I was a kid, I used to like to make puppets from colored construction paper, stick it on a popsicle stick and then put on my own puppet shows.
We also used those popsicle sticks to make things like little boxes, complete with lid. Then we'd paint them and give them to our mom.
In the summer I went to day camp every year and we did a whole bunch of stuff. That's where I learned how to make macramé bracelets, beaded bracelets and a variety of stuff from gimp (that plastic stuff that kids usually make lanyards from).

Vertigo Paris · 04-14-2008, 10:51 PM

The one I remember the most vividly involved crayons, a potato peeler and wax paper.

We brought in our potato peelers and were given a box of 8 ct crayons. We were then to rip the paper of the crayons and basically whittle off small bits of the crayon and 'arrange' them on 1/2 of the wax paper

Once we got it how we wanted it, we would fold the paper in half and then the teacher would come over with a hot iron and press down on the paper for a few moments. Then you open up the paper and voila, a crayola fractal.

Kalia Meiklejohn · 04-14-2008, 11:05 PM

Oh that reminded me of one I really liked. You cut a potato in half, width wise, and then on each cut side, you carve a pattern. You drip that side into paint and use it as a stamp.
I also liked making our own play dough, but I don't remember the recipe.

Weston Graves · 04-14-2008, 11:26 PM

Wow - I want to try some of these. They sound fun for adults.

I don't remember much about crafts as a kid. (They didn't have many crafts back then except cave painting.) But I do recall one time we were all putting on a play based on a silly little story, Billy the Lonesome Word. All the characters were words and I was on the adjective team. We were to make big sandwich signs to hang on ourselves showing what word we were. To help with this someone brought in a big cardboard box that had contained cases of Charmin bathroom tissue.

We cut the box up, painted our signs, and when the night of the play came our big moment was to come on stage and say what adjective we were. "I'm Red." "I'm Smart." "I'm Big" and so on.

One guy had accidentally put his sign on backward, but he didn't miss a beat. "I'm Charmin'."

Vertigo Paris · 04-14-2008, 11:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kalia Meiklejohn

Oh that reminded me of one I really liked. You cut a potato in half, width wise, and then on each cut side, you carve a pattern. You drip that side into paint and use it as a stamp.
I also liked making our own play dough, but I don't remember the recipe.

Oh yeah! I did that one too!!

LOTS of recipes out there.

Cooks.com - Recipes - Homemade Playdoh

Cocoanut Koala · 04-15-2008, 01:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Humps

As a kid at Sunday School (Indeed....I am not a total heathen)....we were given a sheet of sugar paper.

What is sugar paper?

coco

Humps · 04-15-2008, 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cocoanut Koala

What is sugar paper?

coco

I have not seen it for years now but it was this cheap, thick paper. Very rough to the touch that came in loads of different murky shades.

It was prevelant in schools because it was cheap I assume.

I remember the art teacher going apoplectic if you used her 'good paper'. It was always sugar paper until exam time....then the good stuff came out.

I just did a search and amazingly you can still get the stuff...

sugar paper

Cocoanut Koala · 04-15-2008, 11:23 AM

British term. Has some American equivalent, but I can't think of it right now. Let me google.

coco

Artist Reply: Thank you. Sugar paper is also known as construction paper. It's slightly rough (surface not smooth) and very soft, works well with conte crayons.

And

Answers:
sugar paper aka construction paper

Wood chunks and hot water are mixed to form a mushy mixture called pulp. Recycled paper is also added to make the pulp ...

P.S. One site said it is called sugar paper because it was used to make bags of sugar.

Morgaine Alter · 04-15-2008, 11:32 AM

Some of my best memories are crafts as a kid.
An old fond one was making things by gluing hard macaroni noodles down on something and spray painting it sparkle gold.
My mom trained me to crochet so I spent a lot of time collecting granny squares. And macramé of course. lol

Making paper mache puppets in third grade but mine was of the SNL cone heads. They thought I was a freak. pfft

Humps · 04-15-2008, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cocoanut Koala

British term. Has some American equivalent, but I can't think of it right now. Let me google.

coco

Artist Reply: Thank you. Sugar paper is also known as construction paper. It's slightly rough (surface not smooth) and very soft, works well with conte crayons.

And

Answers:
sugar paper aka construction paper

Wood chunks and hot water are mixed to form a mushy mixture called pulp. Recycled paper is also added to make the pulp ...

P.S. One site said it is called sugar paper because it was used to make bags of sugar.

Thanks for that ....I always wondered why they called it sugar paper.

Brave Republic · 04-17-2008, 08:43 AM

we also used bits of broken tile, cups, glas etc and glued them to a masonite square--then filed in with grout making "trivets".

we made lanyards from teh stuff someone here called "gimp" basically vinyl/plastic strips.

We made the bracelets from rope (the sailors ones?) and also did ink prints in HS using carved linoleum or vinyl blocks

I still have the beer stein I painted and finsihed in HS art

Cocoanut Koala · 04-17-2008, 12:19 PM

YAH! New direction for thread!

What things you made as a kid do you still have?

(And of course, insert obligatory long story from Coco here, to start things off.)

The main one of mine that springs to mind is a Christmas Angel I still have, though this was from 10th grade, so not exactly a kid-made object.

Again, I could use a picture to post, rather than just describe, but to describe - it is about 14 inches tall, with gold scrolled folded paper dress, a clay (or something) molded and painted head (with mouth in singing position) and face, arms, music to sing, paper lace collar, lace wings, yellow hair, etc., all of it on a stand.

Sound complicated? It was, VERY. TERRIBLY. An extremely artful angel.

In fact, when I first looked at the art teacher's example in 10th grade, my heart sank: We will NEVER be able to make that. Everyone else had the same reaction.

The teacher said we could. We didn't believe her. But we did make it, over a period of several weeks, step-by-step. And doing something step-by-step, it turns out, generally means you can do almost anything!

This angel looks perfect TO THIS DAY. My mother had it for a centerpiece in her house at Christmas; now it goes on my piano at Christmas.

-----

OK, that wasn't exactly a craft made when I was a KID, so I'll throw in one of those, too.

My mother went on a trip (she was divorced, worked, and sometimes had to travel) for several days. While she was gone I decided to make her a little doll as a surprise for when she got back. I was about 9 or 10 years old.

So I set about with some fabric, a stick for arms, and some little black beads (for eyes), and practically KILLED myself working for days on creating a doll about three inches tall, with stick arms, a green dress, and a bonnet from this stuff. Pricked my fingers with the needle probably a hundred times.

But - it was done when she got home. Boy, was that a sorry-looking little mess, that doll! I was pretty upset with how it came out, considering the days of effort, but she loved it, and kept it all those years, and now I have it. And now I understand why she loved it so.

coco

Michael Bigwig · 04-17-2008, 01:04 PM

Hmmm...what did I do as a child that could be considered 'crafty.'

I used to build intricate fortresses and bases for my He-Men and Gi-Joe figures (both indoors and out).

Later, I used to make half pipes to skate on.

Other than that...not sure.

Ann Launay · 04-17-2008, 01:12 PM

I would build really elaborate castles with cardboard boxes, round oatmeal containers, paper towel tubes...whatever I could find. I had a few that took up most of the floor space in my bedroom before I was done.

I don't know how we're defining 'childhood,' but I also picked up cross stitch in junior high...actually won second or third prize for my age group in the Colorado State Fair one year.

My Mom still has tons of our old craft protects, but the ones which actually see the light of day are things like Christmas ornaments made out of walnut halves or colored dough. She also had a ceramic owl I made in kindergarten out on display until a couple of years ago when one of the cats broke it.

FlipperPA Peregrine · 04-17-2008, 01:24 PM

Pink Floyd has been my favorite band for a long, long, long time. I made a paper mache pig in junior high that I painted and hung from the ceiling of my roof. For those who don't catch the reference, Pink Floyd shows often feature a huge pig come flying across the stadium, and the cover of the album "Animals" had inflatable pigs featured in the artwork, which led to this hilarious story:

Quote:

04-13-2008, 11:04 PM	#1 (permalink)
Cocoanut Koala Coco's Cottages There is no sanctuary. You may think there is, but there is not. Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 6,398 Business: Coco's Cottages SLShopper Ads: 3 Awards: 1	Crafts from Your Childhood - Any Interesting Ones? I started thinking about this when talking about my poor light bulb lady in the other thread. But there was one art project that was absolutely fascinating. I was in second grade for this one, and we did it at the Unitarian Church, in our second grade class. Wax Castles! Now mind you, this was before teachers were so safety-inclined, I guess, because I would not have tried this with my Brownies. Anyway, what it was was hot melted wax, colored somehow, so that there were pink, blue, green, purple, etc., colors to choose from Then we had Dixie cups - which were cut in half, I believe. And a deep sink full of cold water. We would take the Dixie cup, with melted wax of our desired color (I think the teacher poured it into the cups for us) and take them to the sink, then plunge them straight down into the water. Voila! Beautiful castle-like sculptures that hardened instantly! The wax would flow up, then instantly harden where it was flowing. By the time you were at the bottom of the sink with it (very little time, actually), you had a castle in a cup! (I took these home without breaking them, thank God, so there was no trauma associated with this particular crafts project.) coco __________________ Newest Addition: Freebie of the Month! 'Lil Cottage Series #8 ARABIAN NIGHTS by Shagz Anubis Pick yours up at Coco's Cottages! Rosieri 87,165,88 http://www.sluniverse.com/php/shop/s...p?product=4862

04-14-2008, 06:06 PM	#5 (permalink)
Humps Well SHIT on your shoes! I refuse to edit my status Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: UK Posts: 1,096 SL Join Date: 19th May 2006 XBOX Leaderboard: 24^th My Mood:	As a kid at Sunday School (Indeed....I am not a total heathen)....we were given a sheet of sugar paper. We had to cover the paper in all different colours of wax crayon as thickly as we could. When we had done this we had to cover the entire creation with a layer of black crayon even thicker. (I remember it so well because my hands have still not recovered from all that pressure!) Then we were given pencils with no lead in them and the idea was to draw a picture through the black wax and all the different colours underneath would show through. It was quite effective. I drew a donkey (there were donkeys in the bible I recall). I also drew a TR7 because not knowing my own mind I was at the time in love with Purdey from the New Avengers I do know that there were no TR7's in the bible but they were made by Triumph and apparantly Jesus entered Jerusalem in triumph so I was not far off the mark __________________

04-14-2008, 08:11 PM	#6 (permalink)
Kalia Meiklejohn The SLShop-a-holic Oh hush! Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Montreal, Canada Posts: 144 SL Join Date: 06/19/06 My Mood:	When I was a kid, I used to like to make puppets from colored construction paper, stick it on a popsicle stick and then put on my own puppet shows. We also used those popsicle sticks to make things like little boxes, complete with lid. Then we'd paint them and give them to our mom. In the summer I went to day camp every year and we did a whole bunch of stuff. That's where I learned how to make macramé bracelets, beaded bracelets and a variety of stuff from gimp (that plastic stuff that kids usually make lanyards from). __________________ SLShop-A-Holic

04-15-2008, 11:23 AM	#13 (permalink)
Cocoanut Koala Coco's Cottages There is no sanctuary. You may think there is, but there is not. Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 6,398 Business: Coco's Cottages SLShopper Ads: 3 Awards: 1	British term. Has some American equivalent, but I can't think of it right now. Let me google. coco Artist Reply: Thank you. Sugar paper is also known as construction paper. It's slightly rough (surface not smooth) and very soft, works well with conte crayons. And Answers: sugar paper aka construction paper Wood chunks and hot water are mixed to form a mushy mixture called pulp. Recycled paper is also added to make the pulp ... P.S. One site said it is called sugar paper because it was used to make bags of sugar. Last edited by Cocoanut Koala; 04-15-2008 at 11:31 AM..

04-15-2008, 11:32 AM	#14 (permalink)
Morgaine Alter day dreamer report to follow Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: under the moon & stars Posts: 413 SL Join Date: 12/07 My Mood:	Some of my best memories are crafts as a kid. An old fond one was making things by gluing hard macaroni noodles down on something and spray painting it sparkle gold. My mom trained me to crochet so I spent a lot of time collecting granny squares. And macramé of course. lol Making paper mache puppets in third grade but mine was of the SNL cone heads. They thought I was a freak. pfft __________________ I give you fair warning before you attempt me further, I am not what you supposed, but far different. ~W.Whitman

04-14-2008, 11:05 PM	#8 (permalink)
Kalia Meiklejohn The SLShop-a-holic Oh hush! Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Montreal, Canada Posts: 144 SL Join Date: 06/19/06 My Mood:	Oh that reminded me of one I really liked. You cut a potato in half, width wise, and then on each cut side, you carve a pattern. You drip that side into paint and use it as a stamp. I also liked making our own play dough, but I don't remember the recipe.

04-14-2008, 11:26 PM	#9 (permalink)
Weston Graves Recluse Temporally challenged Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: RL Tennesee / SL Marcell Posts: 164 SL Join Date: March 2007 My Mood:	Wow - I want to try some of these. They sound fun for adults. I don't remember much about crafts as a kid. (They didn't have many crafts back then except cave painting.) But I do recall one time we were all putting on a play based on a silly little story, Billy the Lonesome Word. All the characters were words and I was on the adjective team. We were to make big sandwich signs to hang on ourselves showing what word we were. To help with this someone brought in a big cardboard box that had contained cases of Charmin bathroom tissue. We cut the box up, painted our signs, and when the night of the play came our big moment was to come on stage and say what adjective we were. "I'm Red." "I'm Smart." "I'm Big" and so on. One guy had accidentally put his sign on backward, but he didn't miss a beat. "I'm Charmin'."

04-17-2008, 08:43 AM	#16 (permalink)
Brave Republic Shock and Awe vestibular suppressant Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: PA Posts: 1,164 SL Join Date: 10/25/2007 My Mood:	we also used bits of broken tile, cups, glas etc and glued them to a masonite square--then filed in with grout making "trivets". we made lanyards from teh stuff someone here called "gimp" basically vinyl/plastic strips. We made the bracelets from rope (the sailors ones?) and also did ink prints in HS using carved linoleum or vinyl blocks I still have the beer stein I painted and finsihed in HS art

04-17-2008, 12:19 PM	#17 (permalink)
Cocoanut Koala Coco's Cottages There is no sanctuary. You may think there is, but there is not. Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 6,398 Business: Coco's Cottages SLShopper Ads: 3 Awards: 1	YAH! New direction for thread! What things you made as a kid do you still have? (And of course, insert obligatory long story from Coco here, to start things off.) The main one of mine that springs to mind is a Christmas Angel I still have, though this was from 10th grade, so not exactly a kid-made object. Again, I could use a picture to post, rather than just describe, but to describe - it is about 14 inches tall, with gold scrolled folded paper dress, a clay (or something) molded and painted head (with mouth in singing position) and face, arms, music to sing, paper lace collar, lace wings, yellow hair, etc., all of it on a stand. Sound complicated? It was, VERY. TERRIBLY. An extremely artful angel. In fact, when I first looked at the art teacher's example in 10th grade, my heart sank: We will NEVER be able to make that. Everyone else had the same reaction. The teacher said we could. We didn't believe her. But we did make it, over a period of several weeks, step-by-step. And doing something step-by-step, it turns out, generally means you can do almost anything! This angel looks perfect TO THIS DAY. My mother had it for a centerpiece in her house at Christmas; now it goes on my piano at Christmas. ----- OK, that wasn't exactly a craft made when I was a KID, so I'll throw in one of those, too. My mother went on a trip (she was divorced, worked, and sometimes had to travel) for several days. While she was gone I decided to make her a little doll as a surprise for when she got back. I was about 9 or 10 years old. So I set about with some fabric, a stick for arms, and some little black beads (for eyes), and practically KILLED myself working for days on creating a doll about three inches tall, with stick arms, a green dress, and a bonnet from this stuff. Pricked my fingers with the needle probably a hundred times. But - it was done when she got home. Boy, was that a sorry-looking little mess, that doll! I was pretty upset with how it came out, considering the days of effort, but she loved it, and kept it all those years, and now I have it. And now I understand why she loved it so. coco Last edited by Cocoanut Koala; 04-17-2008 at 12:24 PM..

04-17-2008, 01:04 PM	#18 (permalink)
Michael Bigwig ~VRML Aficionado~ Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Riverside, Rhode Island Posts: 1,846 SL Join Date: 12/02/05 Business: Glowbox Designs Blog Entries: 1 SLShopper Ads: 2	Hmmm...what did I do as a child that could be considered 'crafty.' I used to build intricate fortresses and bases for my He-Men and Gi-Joe figures (both indoors and out). Later, I used to make half pipes to skate on. Other than that...not sure. __________________ ~Michael Bigwig ___________________Lead Designer, Glowbox Designs

04-17-2008, 01:24 PM	#20 (permalink)
FlipperPA Peregrine Evil Incarnate! Recursion is beautiful! Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Philadelphia, PA Posts: 5,266 SL Join Date: 2003-11-14 Business: Peregrine Salon SLShopper Ads: 1 My Mood:	Pink Floyd has been my favorite band for a long, long, long time. I made a paper mache pig in junior high that I painted and hung from the ceiling of my roof. For those who don't catch the reference, Pink Floyd shows often feature a huge pig come flying across the stadium, and the cover of the album "Animals" had inflatable pigs featured in the artwork, which led to this hilarious story: Quote: