new members in the plant library!

creature making workshop!

Today we did a workshop with a group of 5 kids. They chose a plant that they liked and made a creature that lived in the plant.
The main intention of this workshop was for us to understand what kind of connections children make with the creatures, and what the relationship or play pattern they see between the two.
It was great to see the enthusiasm with which the kids got into the activity. Various stories of bringing up plants and climbing trees came up. " Treat the plant with care, it helps you survive!,"little Maya told Kavin when he was manhandling his plant.
Again the enthusiasm of the kids was such an inspiration for us!



Mauraya's creature on the Mangervalli: the (b)ded scul

"he is born on halloween, even im born on halloween! he is lazy and lives at the bottom of the plant, where all the mosquitoes are.he sleeps all day and thats why he he can also be be called bed scul. he plays dead so that other creatures come eat him, then he enters them and eats up their intestines.he them leaves the creature through the eyes or the mouth.
sometimes he likes standing out, and scaring predators with his scul. he an change colour and texture.
the plant helps him the way it helps us. after eating all the intestines, he eats the plant which cleans up his stomach."








Kavin's creatures on the Echeveria: Slizzard and slizzard turtle

"They are long and curl around the plant, using its spiky leaves for grip. when an enemy comes into their territory, they break a stone thats in the centre of the plant. this stone kills the enemy, which is a spider, then they eat it."








the slizzards eating their prey and changing colour.






Anya's creature on the drimiopsis: Zoey

"it has 6 legs, and is green blue. but it can change colours. it uses the plant as a play ground and goes and sucks water from the plant because it has so much in its leaves. it has fake eyes to fool enemies, and actually sees using its antennas."







shilo's little drimiopsis bug!





Maya's creature on the Kalanchoe: ilplant

"ilplant is microscopic. he is green and has big big teeth. he breathes from between his teeth. he has a large red and yellow eye. ilplant likes being camouflaged with the plant because he is a pest controller. he is round so that he can move by rolling down from one leaf to another munching on pests."





Ananya's shell creature: trickle puff
"it lives in the shell and puffs up when something dangerous enters the shell.It pokes them when it puffs up, and the smell of the white poison it releases scares the other thing away. it is sparkly and beautiful, and moves like a crab."

Flower, old campus

The creatures.......

The past few days we have been sort of trying to come up with a new solution for our toy.

It is a lot more complicated than we thought. We made two creatures and we both had a feeling

that it was not quite enough just to make a small doll. So we decided to rethink the idea and try

to give the creature a purpose or a function. This is the Mint-creature.

First test. This was my first solution, which just did not work out. It was ok and quite funny but it was

a little too boring.

The second creature I made i wanted to give a function. With this particular plant, the mint plant

it was a little difficult. So finally i came up with this idea, to make the creature into a small bag that

contains a scissor, that you can use to cut of the leaves. Its not super necessary but it could perhaps make

picking leaves a little more cool thing to do. I dont know! That we will find out. We will give the mint plant

and this creature to a test person next week.

Inspiration for the creature was the qualities of the plant and the associations I got from it,

fresh! toothpaste, green and pleasent...

Update on the vegetables

Our vegetable seeds we bought at Lalbagh, are sprouting! Especially tomatoes are growing fast. And the two flower bulbs are shooting up...

Our first workshop!

Today we had our first workshop and it was a big succes! We went to Shibumi and we planted a cherry tree and sunflowers and everyone was really excited - even us! It went really well. The kids were super enthusiastic and they enjoyed it. So far so good.

Now the plan is to get the kids to report to us what happens to the plants. We are now figuring out what sort of "activities" we can give them that involves the plants.

Going to Shibumi

Shibumi school

Preparing for planting the tree

Planting the cherry tree

...and sunflowers

creatures that grow!

i wanted make creatures that metamorphose into different creatures because of plants growing through them. to see if it would work i mixed some mustard seeds in manure and wrapped the mixture in some cotton. this again i wrapped in cloth to make a bundle. this bundle i then placed in a dish of water so that the cotton could soak some in. i then placed the bundle in a cool shady place. (this is generally how mustard is germinated.)
waiting to see what happens!!.