A while ago we were lucky enough to be given a whole bunch of art supplies that the owner no longer needed. Among them was a huge bag of mod-rock that we hadn’t gotten around to using yet. If you’ve never heard of mod-rock (or modroc) before it’s just like a plaster bandage. I decided to see if the girls would like to make some sculptures with it.

We started with some foil and tape. Miss 3 decided to make a dinosaur.

Miss 5 decided on a turtle, but later changed her mind to a bowl.

It was tricky getting the tape to stick, and we found out that masking tape worked better than normal clear tape.

Once the sculptures were made with foil, it was time to cover them with mod-rock. I cut up a container full of mod-rock in small pieces, then the girls put them in the container of warm water. It was a bit tricky trying to get one piece out at a time and flatten it out, and eventually some of the plaster ended up in a big clump on the bottom of the container. We worked out then that it was easier just to dip in one piece at a time as you needed it.

All you do then is apply it to your sculpture like you would with paper mache.

At first I cut small pieces thinking they would be easier to wrap around the smaller parts (like the dinosaur tail), but soon discovered they were hard to flatten out and bigger pieces actually worked better for little hands.

I wondered how my 3 year old would go and if this would be a bit hard for her. But, she was actually able to do the whole thing independently and did such a great job.

The only part I helped with was holding the legs while she wrapped around them.

Isn’t her dinosaur cool?

Once they were all covered we left them to dry for a few days. Miss 5 then had to do the bottom of her bowl, and Miss 3 patched up a few bits of hers that needed a little more mod-rock.

A couple more days and it was time for the finishing touch, paint!

Don’t they look great? I think so!

This was a really fun new material to work with and the girls enjoyed it so much. We did it over 2 weeks, and it was great to see them working on some art that had many steps and required them to really take their time. They even wrapped up an arm and leg with a piece each to see what it would feel like! We might be making masks in the future I think.

If you’re in Australia, CleverPatch stocks Mod-Rock here. If you’re overseas, you can find it on Amazon.