National Museum of Australia

Activity inspired by the Tjanpi ‘Wild Harvest Family’ woven grass sculptures in the First Australians gallery

Tjanpi Wild Harvest Family 2006. By Jennifer Mitchell, Mrs Baker, Panjiti Mackenzie and Nellie Patterson. Tjanpi Desert Weavers, Pitjantjatjara people, Central Australia.

Have you ever created a stick art sculpture?

Children in the July 2012 school holiday program created wrapped stick sculptures that reflected their personalities. This project was inspired by the Tjanpi ‘Wild Harvest Family’ woven grass sculptures.

If you were unable to join us in the Discovery Space over the July school holidays, you might like to download some of our activity sheets and do them at home.

Check out some photos of the sculptures on Flickr

Wrapped! Discovery Space fun

When students from Bowning Primary School in New South Wales said they wanted to do the winter Wrapped! Discovery Space fun at home activity, the National Museum happily donated leftover sticks and fabric. Principal Clare Pritchard said that the Wrapped! stick sculpture workshop was a great success. 'Some students are so keen they are spending lunchtimes wrapping more sticks'. Thanks Bowning Primary School!

Groups of kneeling students holding fabric covered sticks in the air.

Bowning Primary School students with their Wrapped! creations.

Vibrant stick art

What colours and textures represent your personality?

You can wrap textiles and fibres around sticks and other natural forms to create a sculpture that represents your personality.

What you will need:

a stick 30cm–90cm long
fabric offcuts in various colours
string, twine, wool or taffeta
scissors

What to do:

1. Grab your stick and a pile of different fabrics, wool and twine.
2. Find a spot to spread out on the floor.
3. Wrap the fabric around your stick. Then use the twine, wool or string to keep it in place.

Tip: cut the fabric into strips – this makes it easier to wrap.

4. Experiment with:

wrapping your wool tightly
wrapping your wool loosely
crisscrossing
mixing different materials and colours
finding other things to wrap around your stick sculpture
joining sticks together

How does your stick sculpture represent your personality?

If you would like to share your creation with us, send a photo to: schoolholidays@nma.gov.au and we will add it to our Flickr stream.

Samples

Here are a couple of samples that we made.

Look at the different colours and textures of the fabric and wool.

Activity sheet

Wrapped! Discovery Space activity (PDF 705kb)