Abstract Clay Project for Kids inspired by artist Liz Payne
If you’re feeling blue.. try painting yourself a different color.
- unknown artist, age 8
Today we are welcoming our good friends Cara and Kinley of hello, moonpie to the blog. This colorful mom and daughter creativity team probably doesn’t need an introduction, but just in case you haven’t met their brand of artsy-book-loving-dance-party FUN go pop over to their feed, say hello, and then hit the follow button. Everything that Cara shares has been fun-for-kids-tested and mom approved. Before you ask, YES they really are that nice in real life 😊.
When I was dreaming up the artist & contributor features for this Series, Liz Payne was high on my list.. with a note that said “a kid-friendly version of Liz’s lush embroidered, sequined, and beaded fiber art pieces—clay? felt? Collage?” C+K knocked it out of the park. The result of their project development is a powerful aesthetic homage to the artist via a process that (*most) artists big and small will enjoy.
*Clay is one of those things that people either love or not so much. It is very sensory which, again, might be enjoyable or not so much. If clay is a “not so much” consider playing with Liz’s colors, shapes, and textures using another material that does feel like a good fit: pastel? watercolor? collage? felt? or a combo of all of the above!
We are going to let the lovely moonpie ladies take it from here..
a small sampling of the colorful fun that happens over at @hello.mooonpie
I imagine Liz Payne’s workspace to be like a little taste of heaven. Beads and sequins and thread in all of her signature colors in dishes everywhere and her half-finished incredibly detailed and mouth-wateringly vibrant textured masterpieces in embroidery hoops hanging off the backs of chairs and worktables. The kind of room you just wanna pull a spinny chair to the exact middle of, and do a slow never-ending turn around while you take it all in.
Liz Payne is a graphic designer turned rock star artist from Sydney, Australia and after all the studying I’ve done of her work in the past couple of weeks, she is now one of my ultimate favorites. She makes textile art mostly, first painting and then stitching and beading her works of art. She’s been experimenting with fabric and paints since she was just a little girl and she’s really perfected her craft.
Sometimes Liz takes months to make stunningly huge beaded tapestries, but she also likes to work on smaller (but just as rad) framed pieces and wearable art. She’s inspired by African tapestries and South American textiles and Aboriginal art. And she’s just plain AWESOME.
While intricate stitching may be a little too much for little hands and attention spans, this plasticine/clay version allows even the littlest artist a chance to give some of Liz’s signature texture a try. Plus, who doesn’t love playing around with rainbow clay?! :)
Exploring color and texture with clay-inspired by artist Liz Payne
contributed by: hello moonpie
Materials:
Clay tip: Plasticine is basically Play-Doh meets modeling clay. If you can’t find any, I highly recommend Faber-Castell’s modeling clay. Dollar store modeling clay will work if it’s all you’ve got, but in my experience it’s really hard to squish and when we have tried using it for other “painting with clay” projects in the past, it made my kiddo super frustrated and made both of our fingers really sore. The Faber-Castell clay is the exact same texture as plasticine and we actually used a mixture of both for this project so we would have more colors to work with.
cardboard precut into 6 x 6 or 8 x 8 squares
toothpicks or skewers for mark-making
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color and texture board in the making
Kin’s texture and color board - age 8
Before Liz gets started on a new piece of artwork, she sketches it out on her fabric, so that’s how we started our clay and cardboard versions, too. Sketch very lightly with your pencil and make sure you've got a good eraser handy just in case you wanna switch something up.
You might want to head over to Liz Payne’s website and pull up some more of her designs for inspiration to look at while you sketch. Kinley and I scrolled up and down the gallery at least a bazillion times drooling and trying to choose our faves while we were making ours and ended up trying to recreate our own versions of some of her shapes in our own art.
Cara is a home educator with a passion for all things art history. She lives in Ohio with her husband and sweet rainbow loving daughter. She loves going to the library, quiet yoga time, oil pastels, bright colors and learning about the world right along her student. She shares their latest creations and adventures on their instagram account hello, moonpie.
