Wednesday, June 11

Flour painting at the pool







My kids enjoyed our backyard painting enough that they asked to do it again. This time, we (my mom and I) changed things up on them a little by having them make their own paint first. We used a recipe from First Art: Art Experiences for Toddlers and Twos by MaryAnn F. Kohl. I am pleased with our results, but struggled a bit getting them. I'll share the recipe as it's written in the book and then our modifications.

Flour Paint
flour
liquid soap
water
measuring spoons and cups
spoon
bowl or large jar
food coloring drops or paste, or powdered tempera paint

Combine 3 cups (375g) flour, 2 tablespoons (30ml) liquid soap, and 3/4 cup (180ml) water in a bowl or large jar until the mixture is a thick paste. Mix in food coloring until a desired shade is reached.

I assumed "combine" meant stir it up with a spoon. (Oh yeah, the recipe says "spoon.") But I found combining with a spoon left the mixture way too lumpy. I preferred using an electric mixer.
Also, the suggested amount of soap and water was not enough liquid to even make thick paste. I added quite a bit more water and some more soap. Wish I could tell you how much, but I tend not to keep track of those things.
After finally getting the mixture to my desired consistency (never really knowing what the intended consistency should have been), we divided it up into muffin tins to dye with food coloring. This worked really well.
After making our paint, we carried our supplies to the backyard, taped some paper to our little tables and began painting. The kids painted with little brushes, big brushes, and hands. They painted on children's painting paper, newspaper, freezer paper, and of course, their bodies. All paintbrushes, fingers, and other random painted body parts were frequently rinsed in the wading pool, making me think I'm now too spoiled by the convenience to ever paint indoors again.
This was a lot of fun, but I'm still puzzled by the paint recipe. Has anyone used this before?

7 comments:

The Jerrolds Family said...

Let's have a playdate... :)

Amy said...

I just checked this book out from the library, but I have not made anything out of it. I wonder if a heavy duty whisk would work? Regardless, kudos to you for being such a fun momma!

bluechillies said...

Hi! I made this tonight and the only thing I could think of is maybe they had a printing error. Maybe it's 1/3 cup flour instead of 3 cups. I made it with the 3 cups of flour and ended up adding almost 4 cups of water and about 1/4 c of dish soap.
I would also recommend using the gel colors because it took tons of the liquid color to get it where it needed to be.
Thanks for passing this along. I keep looking for new ways to entertain my littles cheaply.

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