Make an animal relief sculpture out of recycled materials. This is a great way to reuse some old craft materials and recycled items. You can use this as a challenge and limit your materials selection to just what you can collect in a few minutes or challenge yourself to make a realistic replica of a certain animal. You can even make an animal fact sheet to go with your animal.

A relief sculpture- known as a relief- is art that projects from a wall, or other type of background surface.

Assemblage is art that is made by assembling unrelated elements – often everyday objects- into an art piece.

Supplies

Hot glue gun & glue sticks
Random craft items & recyclables
Stiff Background Material- to glue your animal onto- card stock, cardboard, foam core, etc.

Step 1: Make Your Assemblage Animal

There's no right or wrong way to make this sculpture. You can look at animal pictures first to get inspiration or just make it up as you go. You can explore the shapes of each material and how you can change that or combine two materials to make a new shape. It's all about having fun and using familiar materials in unfamiliar ways. You can look up some assemblage artists online to see what they've made.

SAFETY TIPS:

If you are gluing a very small piece put the glue dot onto your project and then place the small piece onto the glue dot. That way your finger never comes close to the tip of the hot glue gun.
Not every material can be cut with scissors. If you try to cut a piece of hard plastic- like a marker cap- it will not work well with normal scissors and you could slip and cut yourself.