Fall is the season of harvest, when nature tries on her most vivid colors before settling down for a long winter's nap. This activity celebrates the beauty of the season as well as the importance of maize in Native American tradition by making a beautiful pastel art piece with corn as its theme.
What You Need:
- Pencil
- School glue or any glue in a bottle with a nozzle
- Dark colored construction paper in a harvest color such as brown or deep red.
- Colored pastels
What You Do:
- Take your pencil and lightly sketch an ear of corn. Make a composition of several ears or an ear with the husk pulled down.
- Trace over your sketch with a bead of glue. You can outline your corn or make your design more complex by making thick dots to indicate individual seeds of corn.
- Let your design dry completely. The glue is completely dry when it becomes clear.
- Color your dry design with pastels. Use a cotton swab or your fingers to blend the pastels and work them into the corners of your design. The pastel will cling to the paper but rubs off the glue leaving the darker outline.
Variations can be made using colored tissue for a background. Dip the pieces into a thin mixture of glue thinned with water. Lay the paper down and let it dry. Once the paper is dry use your glue to lay a bead of glue as described above. Let glue dry completely. Then use a contrasting crayon or pastel to rub over the raised, dried glue design.
Did You Know?
- Corn, also known as maize, was first cultivated in the Americas and was shared by the Wampanoag Indians with the European settlers.
- After that maize made its way around the world and is now one of the most popular crops in countries like China and Indonesia.
- Maize is one of the "Three Sisters" of corn, beans and squash that provided a balanced diet for Native American cultures.
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