 Making
It: Programmes 16–26
Programme 25: Percy and Friends Make a Sweet Wrapper Mat
After watching the programme and participating in the activities, pupils should be able to:
- communicate design ideas in different ways, bearing in mind aesthetic qualities, and the use and purpose for which the product is intended
- explore the sensory qualities of materials and how to use materials and processes
- assemble, join and combine components and materials accurately
- design and make assignments using flexible sheet materials and textiles.
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Kids love eating sweets, but Percy and his friends are after something else – the wrappers. They collect all the sweet wrappers they can get and stuff them in a carrier bag.
In the art room, a whole crowd of kids is at work. Percy and his friend join them and pour all their wrappers out into a heap on the big table. Eagerly, they begin to twist the wrappers tightly together, making a thick twisted paper ribbon. It helps to twist the wrappers around a longer piece of paper. Each kid in the team works on a ribbon made from wrappers of a different colour.
When a ribbon is finished, it is coiled into a circle and tied in place with more twisted wrappers. One sweet wrapper circle is tied inside another to make a big, brightly coloured circular mat.
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Art – investigating and making art, craft and design
Science – materials and their properties
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Many different waste materials, such as glass bottles, tin cans and newspapers, can be recycled. Sweet wrappers can be a problem to recycle, because several different materials are often used to make a single wrapper. The wrapper round your next bar of chocolate may contain plastics, tinfoil and cardboard as well as paper. Before any recycling can start, these materials have to be sorted and separated from each other.
Percy and his friends found one way of creatively recycling the stuff we otherwise just throw out. There are some more ideas to try in these notes. But why stop there? Follow the links from this site to find out about the art that can be made from other people's rubbish. The more things we can recycle, the better it is for our planet – and it can be great fun, too. Why not recycle some waste materials into your own piece of original art?
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If you don't have enough sweet wrappers, try using pieces of wrapping paper instead for these activities.
Make a Sweet Wrapper Mat
You will need: sheets of newspaper; scissors; plenty of sweet wrappers; roll of cooking foil.
- You can make a small table mat or a big mat to put on the floor or hang on the wall – it depends on how many wrappers you have.
- Sort your wrappers into different colours. It looks better if you make each paper ribbon using only one or two colours.
- Tightly roll a sheet of newspaper to make a long, thin tube.
- Twist the tube all along its length. This will be the core of your paper ribbon.
- Wind a wrapper around the end of the newspaper core. Then twist the wrapper tightly until it stays in place and doesn't unwind again.
- Keep adding more wrappers until all the newspaper is covered and can no longer be seen.
- If you want to make your ribbon longer, just twist another newspaper ribbon to the end of the first one and carry on as before.
- When you have made several ribbons in different colours, you can begin to put the mat together. Take a ribbon and wind it into a flat spiral shape.
- Cut lengths of foil and twist them into strong strips, then tie the foil strips around the coils of your mat to keep them in place.
- Coil and tie more and more sweet wrapper ribbons around the first one until your mat reaches the size you want.
Make a Sweet Wrapper Bracelet
You will need: sweet wrapper ribbons; roll of cooking foil; scissors.
- Cut and twist foil strips as you did for the sweet wrapper mat.
- Coil a sweet wrapper ribbon three or four times around your wrist. Don't make it too tight – you should be able to slip your hand through the coil to take the bracelet off.
- With the bracelet still around your wrist, tie the coils together with foil strips. This can be a bit tricky to do on your own and you'll find it easier if you have someone to help you.
- You could use foil strips to tie other things into the bracelet, such as beads, bottle tops or buttons.
Make a Sweet Wrapper Pencil Pot
You will need: sweet wrapper ribbons; roll of cooking foil; empty, clean baked bean (or similar) tin; sandpaper; PVA glue and brush.
- Sandpaper around the top of the tin so that it is smooth and there are no sharp bits of tin sticking out. Make sure there's an adult around while you're doing this and take care not to cut yourself on any bits of tin.
- Cut and twist some cooking foil strips, as you did in the last activity.
- Coil sweet wrapper ribbons tightly around the tin, tying them in place with the foil strips.
- Keep going until the whole tin is covered by coils.
- Paint over the paper strips with a layer of PVA glue to give your pencil pot a shiny finish.
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This web page contains links to other websites that are neither controlled nor maintained by Channel 4 Television. Channel 4 Television is not responsible for the content of these sites and does not necessarily endorse the material on them.
Try this embroidery project using sweet wrappers:
www.hiraeth.com/youngembroiderers/projects/sweetbook/book2.htm
Recycle sweet wrappers by making greetings cards:
www.craftcreations.co.uk/Projects14/Tinselflies.pdf
This site has loads of ideas on how to recycle stuff like old sweet wrappers into art. You can even register your school to take part:
www.junktogems.org.nz/gallery_moreinfo.php
Visit this online recycling initiative:
www.sprints.org.uk/bee_index.aspx
Find information on recycling schemes:
www.recycle-more.co.uk/
This US site offers 'creative ways to recycle by making art':
http://www.kid-at-art.com/
Even more art ideas …
http://www.kinderart.com/recycle/
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