Monday, March 26, 2012

Seed Head Sculpture

We took inspiration from Danish artist Morten Flyverbom who covered this VW Beetle in grass as part of his collection of ecological art pieces, and celebrated the spring season by creating these soft, seed-head sculptures.  They're called seed-heads because their heads hold a teaspoon of grass seed and will soon sprout. (At least we hope they do).





To make them, students stuffed a nylon sock with sawdust after dropping a teaspoon of grass seed into the toe.  The nylons were tied off  and kids molded their heads by pinching out features which are held in place with rubber bands.  We used sharpies, cut foam pieces, and wiggle eyes to add personality.  Hot glue guns attached everything in place.
To start the seeds we dipped the top of the head in water for a ten-count and then  placed the figures upright in a cup of water.  The tail end of the nylon theoretically acts as a wick.
The nylon knee-highs cost 33 cents a pair and we got four seed-heads out of each pair by knotting the sock once and cutting in half.
The kids are really excited to see them sprout, and so am I.

3 comments:

  1. Barb, I just found this post which answered my question asked yesterday. Sawdust!!! How long did they take before they started to sprout? How often do you water?

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  2. To get them started, dunk them into a pail of water for a ten count, then set them onto a paper cup of water. The tail end of the stocking is supposed to act as a wick, but it didn't really.
    Water as often as you need to keep the sawdust moist. Dunk them gently and don't let them dry out.
    My kids set theirs in a sunny window and were watering every ten minutes until the classroom teacher set some limits on that.
    IMO Best not to put them in the sun at all until they sprout.
    It took a little more than a week before the grass sprouted.

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