Tough As Nails

It was a hard pounding day that involved muscles, brains, and an electric current. Day 3 of 4-H Summer Fun Arts and Crafts Day Camp involved noise, natural materials and a whole lot of fun and creativity.

We started the day with long time 4-H volunteer and woodworking extraordinaire Bobby Rogers. He came with a woodworking project that literally lit up a room. Each youth worked with Rogers to design and nail together a wood lamp that they can decorate for their rooms. As part of the project they learned about wood design, carpentry skills and of course used a hammer and nails. They also learned about some basic wiring skills as well as gained some knowledge about electricity.

After the lamps were constructed and lunch was over it was time to get even more creative with our construction projects. Our youth used wood letters, numbers and shapes to personalize the lamps. Then they each received their own lamp shade and had the opportunity to use paint pens, bows, glitter, and other misc. objects to create their own design to polish these lamps up as their own.

Not wanting to abandon our wood working roots of the day we then turned to wood burning. Each youth received a poplar disk that they could draw designs on. Then they learned about using a wood burning tool and each took a turn burning an image into their own wood disc.

Learning about creating images we moved from wood to glass as each youth taped off a mirror and used glass etching acid to permanently impose the image on the mirror. It was like magic as they caked on the pasty substance and waited for it to frost over the mirror. As it was rinsed and the tape came off their design was neat to see their creations.

Although that seems like a lot there was at time for at least one more project before we left. A little fun with water balloons (filled with air), yarn, glue, and glitter we made ornaments fit for a king, or queen. It will take a couple of days to dry then we can pop the balloons. So this item should be ready to go home on Friday.

Tomorrow is another day on the road and we are excited about the fun in store. Stay tuned for all the hot and colorful news tomorrow (that's a hint...guess you will have to read tomorrow to see if you guess what it is!).