Craft Time: Pirate Treasure and Dinosaur Bones

We took the rest of the pottery clay that we made from our clay soil out of the freezer for a couple new projects: dinosaur bones and pirate treasure.

A Nature Mom blogged about digging for dinosaur bones with her son, and had the idea to make “dinosaur” bones to hide.  This was a truly fabulous idea, and our second pottery session went even better than the first.

The texture of the clay had improved from the freezer; for some reason, it was less lumpy and a little drier, so it was easier to work.  I got a couple cups out to punch round circles into the clay to make our pirate coins, and we rolled long snakes to make the bones and then kind of smooshed them to look like doggy milkbones.

This time I placed the wet clay on the back steps to dry (putting them in the oven was a smelly way to go).  I was pleasantly surprised that they were hard as rock within 24 hours, even with a light drizzle that fell briefly that first evening.  We spray painted the treasure gold and silver and the bones red and green (I have no idea why dinosaur bones need to be red and green, but they do, according to my son on the day in question).

I highly recommend this activity.  So far they haven’t made it to the sandbox, but instead are being used for waterplay down by the river.  Again, not sure why, but that’s why I have a four year-old, to tell me all the important things I need to know.