Sculpey...oh what fun!

I have never played much with oven-hardening polymer clay before, but I thought that it would be fun for "Art and Science" days. So, we went out and picked up a 30-color sampler pack of Sculpey III. When we got home our "official" project was to make a beetle, and we did: a handsome silver and hot pink elm borer (I let Amalia have some license with the colors, so long as the markings were in the same place as on the scientific drawing). It was a great lesson and gave us a chance to have fun while discussing the anatomy of the order coleoptera.

Of course we had to do a few other projects and, at some point, it clicked with Amalia that the possibilities were close to endless. Naturally we are out of hot pink and purple is getting low.

Anyway, for those with or without kids, this stuff is a blast. It comes in all sorts of colors (and it can be tinted and blended), it hardens quickly in a common oven, it is nontoxic, and is fairly cheap.

I think I may have to build a miniature bullring.