Jul 27, 2012
Dip snails in food coloring, let them crawl on white paper, and you get free art
This creepy-crawly craft is explained at Filthy Wizardry…
The kids dipped the snails from our back yard in the food colouring and put them down on the paper. After the initial shock the snails began to move about the paper and create art for us. The kids had fun putting leaves and grass around the outside of the paper to try and tempt the snails to go one way or the other.
Some of you will wonder if this harmed the snails. No, is the answer…
[W]e see the “used ones” happily around the place still with coloured shells days later.
* * * * *
Better than most modern art. So whimsical, so expressive, so… lacking in pretension.
Your comment is exploding with pretension.
The last picture could almost be used as a Google doodle.
INDEED!
My son and I just tried this with worms, and it worked really well.
Poor snails!
I thought the same thing, Andrew! It’s pretty cool looking!
Who thinks up these things!
I heard about another artist who captures snails, paints intricate designs on their shells and then releases them into the wild.