30 Days Wild Day 7: Mud and feather writing

Today we tried mud and feather writing. My eldest is always picking up feathers so we usually have a collection of them at any one time in a box. I picked out a couple of better looking ones and we headed outside with them plus some card and two painting tubs to do some nature art, inspired by the success of our nature creatures from earlier in the week.

We first dug up a little bit of claylike soil – the muddier and stickier the better I thought. Then we added a bit of water and gave it a bit with a stick. So far, so muddy.

Then we dipped in our feather pens into the muddy ink and created our masterpieces outside. As well as feathers we also used some leafs to create some prints, and some oak leaves as a brush.

Getting started with the mud art

We used leaves and hands as well as feathers to create our masterpieces!

The final pieces – stunning

Then it all got a bit messy with hand prints.

I’m not sure my sons will be winning any prizes soon for their artwork, but they had a lot of fun getting creative and muddy. A bit of rain today added to the excitement. Kids really don’t care if it’s raining. I was wanting to go back inside more than they were today.

Our mud and feather writing activity only took about half an hour but was a great way to unwind and is a good activity to do just before bath time as well!