One of the things I put on my life list was #80, making recognizable Play-Doh animals. I realize this isn’t one of those amazing “once in a lifetime” experiences that you’d think should be on a life list. I want lots of these things in my life, but for most of us life can’t be filled with these on a daily basis. We’ve got to fill it with lots of everyday adventures as well, sometimes even whimsical things that don’t serve any higher purpose other than making us smile. Sometimes simply things we’d enjoy sharing with someone we love.
Well Play-Doh, the monkey and I already do A LOT of Play-Doh (and Plasticine) in this house and I’m sure this will continue to be the case for some time. So I figure why not kick it up a notch, make Play-Doh a little more fun and learn to create an endless cast of creatures, animals that we can bring to life at a moments notice. And I don’t mean the cutout kind. We’ve got little cutouts to make cats and dogs and butterflies and the like. I want something more challenging, I want to mold this crazy substance into animal shapes from nothing.
Now the key word here is “recognizable.” Anyone can make a shape out of a lump of clay. But when my son says “cat”, I want it to be because I intended to make a cat, not because I tried to make horse and it went horribly wrong.
So to give you some perspective on the steepness of my learning curve, I thought I’d share with you where I am on this journey, square one if you will.
First, I present “Dinosaur” and “Snake.” To be fair, snake is really not that much of a challenge. I think I’ve got that mastered. But the dinosaur, that looks like some creature popping out of a floppy wizard’s hat.
And then there is “Seal.” Do not ask me why he asked me to make a seal. That one came out of no where.
I have found this article on how to make clay animals which has a few tips I’ll try. In fact, this technique might help me with the problem I’ve had with arms and legs constantly falling off.
The more I’ve used Play-Doh I’ve also learned that it bugs the crap out of me when the colors get all mixed up. I want them to stay separate and pure. A quick survey of my friends revealed that I am not alone. But I’ve got to let that go. Life is too short to worry about whether a bit of red gets in the white. Just go with the flow and enjoy the pink.
Stay tuned…
