Miniature Worlds: with Lauren Fry

Miniature worlds

With Lauren Fry, Arts Educator

Throughout works of children’s literature, from classics such as ‘The BFG’ to modern marvels like ‘In the Jar of Happiness’, jars have been used as symbols of preservation and safekeeping where precious things are stowed away by protagonists to admire, remember, and inspire. Recycling activities are as versatile as they are fun, given the only limit is a child’s imagination. Projects made from recycled materials can include cereal boxes, paper towel rolls, corks, egg cartons, jars and so much more. In this eco-friendly make, we will be transforming everyday recyclables into miniature dioramas of magical scenes, promoting a new-found sense of understanding and respect for the natural world and all it does. Whilst creating their very own oasis of imagination, children can conjure up tales of its inhabits, flora, and fauna. In a world where anything goes, an egg box can become a gigantic mushroom, plastic packaging transforms into coastal plant life and a tin foil tube makes the ideal lighthouse guiding unseen sailors through a stormy fuchsia sea. By creating a world of their own making, with things that are often discarded without a second thought, young minds can be encouraged to consider how to best protect and preserve the future of their natural world.

Materials

Glass jars Recyclables Scissors, glue, and tape Leftover art materials Felt tips/paint/crayons/colouring pencils

Hut

My stilted shoreline shelter uses plastic packaging for kelp-like leaves, a cereal box for the mini building supported on wooden kebab sticks, finished off with a scrap of tin foil for the billowing smoke.

Lighthouse

The lighthouse scene uses a tin foil tube to create a perfect cylindrical building mounted atop a polystyrene rocky base. Scrunched bubble wrap creates the dark stormy clouds.

Mushroom

My magical mushroom home uses an egg box to form the giant toadstool, a chocolate bar wrapper for the tiny reflective door, and finally tall blades of translucent grass cut from a plastic milk bottle.

To finish off each of my dioramas I have used some scraps of coloured card I had left over from a previous make, as well as some felt tips and paint markers from my art supplies.

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