PVA planets: with Lauren Fry

PVA planets

With Lauren Fry, Arts Educator

Encouraging exploration in children promotes curiosity and discovery. It also helps to reduce the fear of failure, which increasingly hinders young people’s willingness to experiment. To inspire exploration there are few things more awe-inspiring and mind-blowing than outer space and the possibilities of unexplored galaxies, unidentified objects and unknown life forms.

Art meets science with this extraterrestrial experiment of mixing colours into PVA and waiting with excitement for the results to be revealed. Last year saw colossal scientific discoveries in space including the sun reawakening, a new moon around Jupiter and a black hole called ‘the unicorn’. Who knows what phenomena are waiting to be discovered in 2022?

With a few simple art materials and a willingness to play, you can create stunning and mystical planets and celestial bodies that will inspire high aspirations and give form to the mantra of aiming for the stars. Materials

PVA glue String and tin foil or round lids Watercolour liquid or powder, ink, food colouring, poster paint, glitter, googly eyes, chalks, pastels...the possibilities are endless. White/silver pen (optional)

1. The first step is to decide what you are going to use as a mould. You could use a circular lid of a pot or create a mould by forming a circle of string on a piece of tin foil. Once you have selected your mould, pour in some PVA; do this slowly and carefully so it doesn’t overflow.

2. Now to add the colour. The key here is exploration and experimentation. You could add ink, paint, food colouring, glitter, pastel shavings… let your imagination run wild. I have added some googly eyes to create a mystical planet occupied by an alien life form.

5. Once dry you can peel your planets out of their moulds. It’s a good idea to keep them under something heavy for a few hours to help them remain flat. If you fancy creating different sized planets trim them down carefully using scissors. 3. Time to mix the potion and create the magic. 4. Leave your moulds somewhere flat and safe, but not too near a radiator. Leave them for two to three days to dry.

6. As a finishing touch you could add some white or silver dots to represent far-flung galaxies of stars.

7. There are no rules on how to display your planets, you could make a small hole and hang them in a window so the sun shines through, or create a mobile to hang above your bed and inspire dreams of daring adventures in space. Good luck brave art explorers!

Find out more about Lauren’s illustration work at studiowren.co.uk or follow her on Instagram @studio_wren