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Making cress- and grass-heads
Posted by: Pippa Greenwood, 17 April 2008, 11.39AM
When the weather is too vile to spend time outside, it's time to get creative. And a wet weekend is perfect for making some seriously funky grass- and cress-heads with the children.
The results look great and entertain the kids for weeks to come; the grass can be styled into haircuts and the cress eaten in sandwiches.
The best thing to do when making cress-heads is to start by making a cake to use the eggs (any excuse!). Crack the eggs carefully to ensure the shells are in good condition. After washing them out thoroughly, place the halved egg shells in egg cups. Loosely pack them with damp cotton wool and sprinkle cress seeds over the damp surface. Then have fun creating happy, smiley, funny or even evil-looking faces in pencil or acrylic paint (felt pen tends to run). The cress hair should appear within a week.
For the grass heads, use old tights, cut in to 20cm lengths. Tie each one in a knot at one end and add a teaspoonful of grass seed. Then cram the tights full with sawdust, so the tights take on a round, head shape. Tie a tight knot beneath the mass of sawdust and soak the head in water, ensuring it is thoroughly wet through. After about ten days the grass hair will start to appear, bright green and very straight. Add some plastic eyes or paint them on with a face.
This is great fun and low-budget entertainment for those grottier days, and it's not just for the kids, I like to join in too.
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