Festival Headdresses

Creative Science Workshop

age: 5yrs plus

This creative science workshop explores qualities of materials, specifically – how wax and water resist each other – offering a wonderful way to explore colour and pattern. This is called “resist painting” and is a very old technique used to create textiles and ceramic designs all over the world.

It’s a two stage workshop: Using wax crayons and water colour inks, children start by colouring and painting two sheets of cartridge paper. After allowing the sheets to dry (15min aprox), they then cut them up and make their own festival headdresses, adding decorations such as feathers, sequin strip, and furry craft stems (chenille pipe cleaners).

The colours – You need good strong colours to make bold designs. I use Stockmar beeswax crayons and Brusho water colour inks (by ColourCraft). Cheaper wax crayons are mostly wax and so it is worth paying extra for good quality. You can use any watercolour paints, in blocks or tubes. But for large areas such as headdresses or banners and groups of children you need jars of liquid ink. Brusho powdered watercolour inks are the best and cheapest for this. Once you have bought a set of these you will find many uses, and never go back to blocks. You can mix up as much as you need, and once mixed they last several years in a glass jar with a lid. See this “Colourful Wax Resist Painting” worksheet for details on the whole process.

Click to view PDF Worksheet:

Colourful Wax Resist Painting

Special effects – Paper crimpers are very effective for adding extra effects to 3-D paper structures, creating lively bouncy streamers and textured shapes. The alternative is to hand fold zig-zag strips, or coil them around a pencil to make curly waves.

The room setup – Individual tables for the colouring and making stages, plus a long painting table covered with plastic sheet and newspaper. For a large festival project I usually set up between four or six painting stations, each with six jam jars of coloured ink, chubby brushes for each pot, plenty of rinsing water pots, and kitchen paper roll. I allow enough space at each painting station for two A3 sheets of paper, so two children side by side.

You will need – chubby paint brushes, jam jars with lids, water pots, white cartridge paper (A3), Stockmar beeswax crayons, Brusho water colour ink powder, plastic table cloth, newspaper, kitchen roll, plastic aprons, scissors, solid glue sticks, masking tape, staplers, hole punches, plus (optional) paper crimping devices. Materials for decoration included sequin strip, furry craft stems, and colourful feathers.

I have run versions of wax resist painting projects lots and lots of times – the last one was in the Autumn 2017 for Flipside Lowestoft Arts Festival (26th October) in Suffolk. 24 children of all ages took part.

Here are a few photos from this event: