Ice art
Making ice art is a really lovely winter activity for children and it’s such a great way to spruce up any bare winter trees in your garden. My children love anything to do with ice and although they are now 10 and 13, they still love to run out in the garden first thing in the morning at the first sign of a frost and see what has frozen outside. They love to prise off the layer of ice formed in buckets and other things filled with rain water.
This activity is particularly good for older children, as it requires some forethought when collecting the nature items so they can create a landscape in miniature and an additional freezing step to make sure the nature art is frozen into place. It’s as much about the process as it is about the end result. For younger children, they can create a piece of abstract nature art without worrying about placement of their nature items and can skip the first freezing step.
What you will need:
A shallow tray
Nature items such as small twigs, leaves, berries, dried seed heads and grasses, moss, petals and small stones.
Cotton wool and other small items for your scenery (optional)
Jug of water
Twine
Clips or clothes pegs to hold the twine in place
Freezing weather (or a freezer!)
What you need to do:
Before you can make your ice art, go for a walk in nature or for a wander in your garden to find some nature materials to use in your art. Keep in mind the size of your tray when choosing your materials - smaller leaves and twigs etc will work better than larger ones.
Place your shallow tray on a flat and level surface. Pour some water into the tray so it’s about 0.5 cm deep. It needs to be deep enough so that it holds everything in place when you freeze the water but not so deep that your sticks and leaves float about as you’re trying to arrange them.
Choose some of your collected items and arrange them in your tray to create a nature scene. Small twigs and leaves make great winter trees and bushes for example, and moss can be used as hills. I used a yellow pansy petal as a bright yellow sun and my son added a lego lightsaber trapped in stones.
Once you are happy with your scene, carefully transfer it to a level space in your freezer. If the weather is cold and the temperature is below zero degrees centigrade, you could leave your tray outside overnight instead, somewhere that it won’t get knocked over. It’s really fun for children to go outside in the morning to see how their art has frozen overnight!
You might find that some of your items have moved in the water as it froze, but that’s okay. My sun started to set!
Once frozen, you can add another layer of water - about 1cm deep. You’ll want it to be thick enough so that the art doesn’t defrost too quickly after you hang it up but not so thick that the ice obscures your art. Make sure this water is icy cold! Unfortunately, I didn’t and the art started to defrost pretty quickly and the first layer started to rise to the top. However, I popped a few more stones on the bottom ice layer which weighed it down. Phew!
If you want to add clouds to your scenery, tear of a small amount of cotton wool and stretch it out so it’s nice and fluffy and then gently place into the water.
Finally, take a piece of twine and press the ends into the water, making sure they go below the water line and leaving the loop overhanging the tray. If the twine moves about too much, you can clip it into place with bulldog clips or pegs.
For this stage, you’ll need to use your freezer as your art will need to start freezing straightaway. Carefully transfer your tray to your freezer and leave overnight.
In the morning, you can carefully pop your ice landscape out of its tray. It might help to leave the art for a minute or two so that the art can easily be removed from the tray.
Hang your ice art outside by the twine, somewhere outside such as on a branch and watch what happens to it during the day!
Don’t forget to pick up any non-nature items when your art has fully defrosted.
Author: Denise Hope, home educating mum of two boys