Hen Craft Challenge

This was inspired entirely by the infamous Molly Moo. One day I logged onto Pinterest only to find that I'd been invited to join a ambiguous community called the "Hen Craft Challenge." Intrigued I clicked in & learned that I was being challenged to create a hen representative of where we live. I was a bit apprehensive, we've not done any sculpture lately due to house showings. But the bright side of having a mysterious leak, and your upstairs bathroom tile and kitchen ceiling tore open to find it, is no showings and the ability to have a sculpture out drying for a couple day. So... Challenge Accepted! 

One of my favorite sculpting mediums for kids is paper mache. We raided our recycling bin for materials to build the armature (the skeleton of our sculpture). Our hen's body is a box with it's sides taped to splay out a bit. The head is made of newspaper and I trimmed a plastic lid to make the tail. 

Then we started to paper mache! The fastest- and easiest- paper mache paste I know is just to mix glue and water to a slimy consistency. I always start with glue first and add water a little at a time until it's just right. If it's too thick add a tiny bit more water, and vice versa until it evenly coats your paper. We usally paper mache newspaper onto our sculpture first, then add a few decorate layers on the top. Since we weren't worried about permanence- and had a quickly approaching deadline- we skipped right to the decorative layers, made up of maps of our area. I was planning a striking profile for Ms. Hen, with a pointy beak, but Isia had another idea.

While drawing on her feathers, Isia decided she needed a face too. How can you say no to a lovely face like this? Especially that darling beak! She's getting pretty good at making her ideas come to life these days, which makes it even more fun to share projects with her. This particular project had another purpose too.

Living in Indiana most of my life, I've come across an old-fashioned hen crock or too. For novelty's sake only, this hen was created to be a hen-topper for our crayon basket. However, as someone who often asks for a baby in her belly- her Daddy says she can, in Thirty years- Isia wasn't completely satisfied with Ms. Hen having crayons for eggs.

So she drew her some eggs of her very own! 

{ Visit the Hen Craft Challenge to see more blogger-created hens from around the world. Lovely! }

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