30 Days Wild Day 16: Using nature to make clay art

I ordered some clay from the internet to do this at some point in June but the boys loved playing with it so much I’ve had to order two more bags of it. It’s easy to mould when you first open it but after a day or so it dries naturally and you are left with whatever shapes you’ve made.

Using nature to make clay art is such an easy activity to do. We hunted around the garden and our local patch of woodland for bits and pieces we found. It could be anything but harder objects like shells or seed pods work very well. Roll out the clay to about half a cm thick then press your bit of leaf, acorn, seed etc down firmly into the clay. Voila! You are left with a lovely imprint.

I actually think if you spent a bit more time making the initial shape neat and tidy, and then painted or varnished the bit of clay afterwards, it would make a nice present for grandparents.

Our nature finds – an oak leaf, fern and seeds from a flower

Rolling out our clay

Pretty fern print on clay