Why Not Start a Collage Club?

Written by Erin Bakker

Last Sunday was rainy, which is basically an invitation to cover the dining table with every art supply you own and see what happens.

HG invited three other 10-year-olds over for what she called Collage Club.

There was no elaborate plan. No

carefully selected craft with a picture of what

everybody was supposed to make at the end.

Just a table full of stuff and permission to make something.

Paint. Glitter. Beads. Paper. Shells. Markers. Glue. Pom-poms. Random little things we have collected over time and apparently been saving for exactly this kind of afternoon.

There were hot chocolate chip cookies, lots of giggling, and very little concern about where the glitter was going.

Give Them the Stuff and Let Them Figure It Out

One of my favorite things about watching kids create is seeing what happens when you do not give them too many instructions.

Nobody made the same thing.

There were painted canvases, glitter-covered experiments, beads, shells, little drawings and things that probably do not have an official name. They borrowed ideas from each other, changed directions halfway through, added one more thing and then another.

It was messy.

It was also really good.

I think sometimes we make creativity too complicated for kids. We think we need a project, a lesson, a supply list and a finished example.

Sometimes they just need a table.

The Very Loose Collage Club Supply List

You really do not need much, and I would use whatever is already hiding in drawers around your house:

• Scrap paper and cardstock

• Paint and watercolors

• Markers, crayons and colored pencils

• Glue

• Scissors

• Beads and buttons

• Ribbon or yarn

• Glitter, if you are feeling brave

• Shells, pressed flowers or little found objects

• Stickers, pom-poms and anything else you cannot quite justify keeping but also cannot bring yourself to throw away

  
  

Then cover the table with something washable and let them go.

Snacks help.

Obviously.

There Is Still Glitter in the Vacuum Cleaner

There is probably glitter in places I have not found yet.

The vacuum cleaner definitely has some. No harm done.

Because for a rainy Sunday afternoon, we got a table full of art, four very entertained girls, a lot of laughter and the beginnings of what I suspect will not be the last Collage Club.

And really, that is the whole idea. You do not need a reason to make something.

You do not need to be particularly good at it. You do not even need to know what you are making when you start.

Clear the table.

Invite some friends.

Put out the supplies.

Why not?