Earth art: exploring the outdoors with nature crafts.

Nature crafts use bits and pieces of the outdoor world to make useful or decorative projects and encourage participants to learn, to explore, and to become more aware of the world around them. Individuals caught up with looking for just the right leaf, stick, or pine cone for a project gradually become aware of the variety in nature. Experiences in nature crafts can lead participants to pursuits in the natural sciences, to extensive collections, or to career choices.

Camps are an ideal setting for nature crafts programs. Here are some guidelines for including nature crafts in your outdoor programming.

* Incorporate nature crafts into a variety of times and places in camp; don't relegate them to a specific hour or designated building. Some indoor storage space for supplies and unfinished projects is desirable; however, craft projects don't need to be done at an indoor table at a scheduled time. During rest hour, after a lunch break on a hike, on the beach while waiting to go swimming, and in a unit before an evening campfire are all good times and places for nature crafts projects.

* Counselors who are imaginative, enthusiastic, and interested in the natural world often make the best instructors. Create an informal atmosphere with liberal praise and encouragement and don't focus on perfect results. Working on nature crafts projects should be fun and satisfying.

* Teach campers to respect the environment and to gather materials with care and consideration. Be aware of rare and poisonous or dangerous plants, such as poison ivy, and educate campers accordingly.

* Encourage campers to experiment with a wide variety of materials in their projects. Seeds, stones, bark, twigs, feathers, leaves, bones, moss, berries, flowers, fungi, pine cones, shells, reeds, spider webs, corn husks, native clay, grasses, sand, vines, and nuts are just some of the many natural materials available.

* To lessen impact on the environment, plan ahead for projects so that craft materials can be gathered while on a morning hike, on the way back from the dining hall, or during other activities both in and out of the camp.

* Gather seasonal material at appropriate times of the year, if possible, and store in boxes or bags for future use. Items such as seeds and pine cones are sometimes hard to find when you need them.

* Offer several choices of projects within a specific time period so participants can choose the one most appealing to them. Several projects going on at once stimulates campers to try something they see someone else doing and can spark a creative new idea.

* As in any activity at camp, safety, especially when using tools, is an important consideration in nature crafts activities.

* Many crafts have a historical or pioneer background that can lead to further research or associated projects, or even to a special event day. Look for ways to incorporate crafts into other components of your camp's program.

* Encourage a variety of approaches and uses. In a project using leaves, one camper might want to make a collection of leaf prints, one might want to make stationery, another place cards and place mats for a special camp dinner, another wall decorations, and yet another something entirely different.

* Stress cognate learning in every project. Making leaf prints can lead to learning about various trees simple versus compound leaves, alternate versus opposite branching, different sizes and shapes of leaves on one tree, or color variation in leaves. Woodcarving can lead to discussions about which woods are soft and which are hard. Projects using stones can lead to consulting a book on rocks and minerals.

* Aesthetic values can be an important part of a nature crafts experience. Stopping for a few moments to watch the sun filter through the leaves of a tree, noticing the colors of pebbles in the water, observing the dew on a spider web, or sketching cloud patterns can be parts of a successful program.

* Whenever possible, schedule a special exhibit or art show to display the projects that campers have completed.

* Samples of nature crafts projects and a library of crafts books can stimulate both campers and staff to try additional projects. The possibilities are endless.

Suggested Projects

* Use the sun and a magnifying glass to woodburn a nametag.

* Weave cattail leaf placemats.

* Use leaves or ferns for ink pad prints, smoke prints, crayon prints, spatter prints, or carbon paper prints.

* Make dolls from grass or cornhusks.

* Color sand for sand painting.

* Make floating candles in walnut shells.

* Collect pine cones and nuts for a wreath.

* Make a necklace from sassafras twig beads.

* Dry apples and make apple dolls.

* Weave a basket from honeysuckle vines.

* Make a broom from a witch hazel branch,

* String scallop shells together to make wind chimes.

* Use rice paper to make a fish print.

* Make a whistle from a willow or basswood twig.

* Make leaf, grass, and fern prints on clothing with fabric paint,

* Use a Navajo loom to make a grass or straw mat.

Diane Pick is an associate professor and coordinator of Wayne State University's program in recreation and park services. She was president of the American Camping Association Michigan Section for five years and chairperson of the metro Detroit conference in 1991. Diane has been collecting ideas and conducting workshops on nature crafts for more than thirty years.