Fun at the Autumnal art activity

Julia and Janie are kicking themselves for forgetting to take photos of the first art activity when we did printing onto cotton sheeting using flower petals as dye. Young Nature Watch enthusiasts selected from a huge pile of flower petals and made colourful patterns across white sheeting that had been soaked in apple cider vinegar. Each piece was rolled up and tied with string, then put in a steamer for the rest of the session to infuse as much colour from the petals as possible. The big reveal was done at home. This method is best done on silk so something to try again next year at home now that everyone knows the process. We give thanks to Tisbury Dental Surgery for their permission to snip their roadside roses and buddleia and especially to Debbie Condon for kindly giving access to a wide selection of flowers from her garden. 

We had a quick walk around the Community Garden and St John's Churchyard to spot autumnal berries and nuts and then our next activity was painting leaves of different shapes and sizes, then pressing them onto gift cards and tags to make colourful designs. Our YNW mothers also enjoyed the therapeutic calm of getting creative.

And our final activity was mushing up blackberries in a cup and squeezing the juice through muslin to make a pretty purple ink for painting with. Highly satisfying to see the ink squirt out through the muslin and a few children wanted to take the muslin home to have further play with them later!