Coffee filter papers are perfect for trying out some chromatography and producing some beautiful artwork.
I cut the filter papers into circles and we tried using watercolour paints. My son is just starting out with watercolours and isn’t very good at getting much paint on the brush, so the colour effects are fairly pale in comparison to our usual efforts with acrylics. He was quite good at adding water to the filter papers though, which helped the paint merge and blend.
After the paper had dried I cut the circles into flower shapes and glued them to some card, adding a little detail with markers. When F gets a bit older we’ll do these again, getting the colours stronger and he can also help make some leaves and draw the stems.
Another day we tried using markers – well actually we used Crayola Paint Brush Pens, which are fairly similar. I opened out some coffee filter papers and taped them to the table. I got F to scribble on them, encouraging him to fill as much of the paper as possible.
The shape of the filters reminded me of butterflies, so I refolded them, drew on an outline of a butterfly, and cut them out. Then I attached them to some card with double sided tape and drew on some features with a marker. Cute, huh?
Cute indeed. What a lovely idea. Something adults could do, too.
I think the butterflies were my favorite! I love repurposing items for play and using what you have to create fun art experiences. Pinning now!
Gorgeous! I need to get our coffee filters out!
I remember doing something similar in school, but we put a clothespin right through the center of the dried coffee filter. it bunched it up just right so that the filter looked like wings!
I remember doing something similar in school, but we put a clothespin right through the center of the dried coffee filter. it bunched it up just right so that the filter looked like wings!