A natural menagerie

Stick Animals
You'll have great fun creating animals out of sticks and moss. The best part is coming up with your own ideas, but here are some to get you started. Look at a picture, book of animals and try to figure out what makes one animal different from another. For example, antlers make a horse figure look like a reindeer. Curled antlers make the, same figure look like a mountain sheep. A curved tail makes another figure look like a wolf. Use moss, cones, seeds — anything you want — to make the figures more recognizable, but try to use all natural materials.

You will need:
• old sheet or towel to cover work area
selection of twigs
• hot glue gun and glue sticks or craft glue
• pinecones
• sheet moss or lichen
• raffia
• scissors

NOTE:
It is better to use twigs that you find on the ground than to cut green ones. Not only do they break more easily, but also they are already dried and will not shrink. Of course, you don't want to cut a living tree. If the bark is not firmly attached, scrape it off the twigs before you begin your project. Otherwise, the bark will slip off the twig and your project could fall apart.

To get how-to instructions for making a horse, reindeer, porcupine and snail, click here.

Click below for additional instructions for making:
Knights
Raffia Baskets

Excerpted from Nature's Art Box by Laura C. Martin with drawings by David Cain. Copyright 2003 by Laura C. Martin. Reprinted courtesy of Storey Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Available in Canada from Thomas Allen & Son Ltd.