My daughter’s last term project was exploring artists. With little time to spare (due the following day!!) and a Matisse exhibition in town and a little pinterest for inspiration (saw a balloon covered in leaves) and inspiration hit hard – we would make a matisse cut out egg!
We cut some shapes in card, made some modge podge glue (flour and water cooked together!)
then started gluing the shapes on a balloon (standing on a glass)
– we left to dry overnight and popped the balloon the next day!
I was highly dubious that it would work, but it did!! Very happy results…
Update:
I am really happy to say that the Matisse egg has been a bit of a hit on Pinterest over the past few months, and I have been so touched to see it so appreciated.
it has been featured in a number of great creative blogs (thank you so much Hello Wonderful!, Buzzfeed, 2soulsisters) and it’s truly been wonderful to hear that this has inspired so many people.
You can find further craft ideas here such as the nature drawing table, leaf crafts and woodland creatures.
I am also an illustrator, creating custom portraits – you can find my shop on Etsy, find out how I work and my price list. I do take international orders.
Karuski's little shop of colours 
This looks fantastic! I wonder if you could do the something similar with leather or vinyl offcuts?
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Ooh, that would be so interesting to try! I guess you’d have to get the right kind of glue – and make sure the materials dry fully, which could take a while? Let me know if you do try! I want to do this with autumn leaves too….
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Love this project! Planning to do it with a class of fourth graders next week. I am wondering if you added sugar to your flour water mod-lodge mixture? Or did you just add enough water to flour to make a thick paste?
My daughter & I did a trial run with watered down Elmer’s & besides the mess it doesn’t seem to be holding well- thinking it is not thick enough?
Thanks so much for the inspiration!
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I think we cooked it until thick enough – but you could try with sugar! So many recipes on pinterest!
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does straight mod lodge work?
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I think it should, yes, but haven’t tried it! I think as long as it’s properly dry, it should work fine!
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Looks great! What kind of paper exactly did you use? Was thinking construction paper? Thank you!
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Thank you! I used fairly ordinary paper, a little thicker than normal, but not card, which I worried might not take the glue so well. Think coloured paper you get from craft shops, not craft paper, if that makes sense! Will try to find the weight reference for you!
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Do you put the paste on the bottom an top of paper or just the top?
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Very liberally and all over, the paper/ card becomes quite wet, which helps with the shaping – and we re-applied the mixture as the paper was on the balloon.
Sharea piconce you’re done, would love to see yours!!
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Does the balloon get stuck to the glue and paper? Did you put something on the balloon to make it non-stick?
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Once the glue is dry, the balloon gets unstuck pretty easily! But worth using slightly thick card so that it is strong enough to support itself 🙂
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My balloon popped overnight – anyone have an idea what I did wrong
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It’s hard to tell, the balloon migh have had a fault? See this thread http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=19602.0
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I’d like to try this with my art club next week. Could you use pva glue?
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I haven’t tried but I don’t see why not! Maybe worth doing a test first? Let me know how it goes, would love to see pictures!
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Look so nice! is it okay if I spray paint the dry product? 🙂
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I haven’t tried, but why not!!! Let me know how it goes 🙂 Or went!!
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Look so nice! Is it okay if I spray paint the dry product?
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Thank you!! Never tried but as long as the paper is sturdy enough, i don’t see why not? Would love to see the results!
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I tried 2 attempts with liberal amounts of mod podge and let dry overnight. Both collapsed. Can you share more specifics about your flour water glue and how prepared?
Thanks.
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Hi there! I wonder if it’s the glue or the paper? It’s best to use slightly sturdy card, which will be a bit more resistant when wet? Just a thought!
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Yea…it was a card stock. Did your flour mixture get cooked on the stove? 1/2 and 1/2? How quickly do you have to use the mixture? I teach art in my attic and next week we add the balloon and glue step.
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Did you say that you heated the flour water mixture first?
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Hi there, yes the mixture does need to be cooked – here are a few potential recipes! http://m.wikihow.com/Make-Mod-Podge
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Is the paper you used more like scrapbook paper rather than true card stock? Thanks!
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It wasn’t thick card for sure, but it did have a bit of oomph!
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Hi,
Could you tell me how you related this to Matisse and his artworks please? I love your concept by the way and would like to attempt it with my class of year 3-4 (in NZ) 🙂
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One of Matisse’s technique was cut outs – literally playing with shapes to create art. There was a major exhibition a few years ago that toured the world, and this is what inspired this egg, bringing together the cut outs and his famous leaf shapes. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/mar/29/henri-matisse-cutouts-tate-modern-drawing-scissors. Would love to see what you do with your class!
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Hi Petrina, responding criminally late, I hope you did manage to do the project and had fun! Matisse used decoupage a lot in his work with natural shapes, so this was taking it one step further by bringing a 3D element…
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HELP! I began some Matisse Eggs in my 5th Grade class who got about half way done. I don’t see them again for six days and thought I would be able to just continue where we left off….BUT . 3 of the balloons have popped on their own already. It could be the ones that had too much glue but I’m not sure. I really want these to work…has this happened to anyone else? It’s only been a day and I don’t see them again until the end of next week….ANY IDEAS ARE MUCH APPRECIATED…we used construction paper. I tried it and mine worked fine.
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oh no! Sorry to hear that Deborah. Were you able to continue with them? I wonder if the quality of the balloons might be of importance here, or making sure they are not blown too much?
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I tried this with modge podge and all was going well until I popped the balloon. The paper stayed stuck to the balloon.
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Sorry to hear that Kathy – I wonder if it was all fully dry already?
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Did the bowl have a level bottom? If so, how did you ma age that on a balloon? Love yours!!
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No the bowl (I assume you mean the actual egg) was balloon shaped so the bottom wasn’t flat, but it was pretty light and stood by itself. Thank you!!
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