This is no joke: 2008 has been declared by the United Nations as “The International Year of the Potato”. This same honour was bestowed in 2004 to the potato’s archrival, rice.
Seriously, the purpose of focusing world attention on the potato this year is to give public awareness to the role it plays in being a staple food to the world’s population. It is also to show that there is a relationship that exists with the potato and poverty, food security and malnutrition in an effort to defeat hunger.
Knowing that people go hungry, I don’t like to waste foods, but our art project needs only one humble, carved spud. Why use potatoes? They have a waxy consistency that makes them easy to cut and carve easily. Second, they are full of starch, a natural glue, which gives “stick” to your potato prints. Third, a potato can be used over several days by leaving it in cold water between projects.
Once you have finished this art project, the potato can be added to your compost.
By investing in a few inexpensive bottles of acrylic paints (I often buy them from a “dollar store”), these prints will have a more permanent quality and can be done on paper or fabric.
An adult will need to do the initial work of cutting the potato and inserting the cookie cutter but once that’s done most children who are 6 and older can do the trimming of the potato flesh with a plastic serrated knife. The under 6 crowd will have to settle with just doing some stamping.
Supplies:
- Potato
- Acrylic paints
- Metal cookie cutter shapes that will fit on the surface of the potato
- Sharp knife
- Plastic serrated knife
- Bamboo stick
- Paper or fabric
Directions:
- At the risk of stating the obvious, how you cut the potato in half is crucial. Both surfaces must be absolutely flat. Try to hold it steady and cut through in one decisive stroke.
- Place the cookie cutter on the flat surface of one half of the potato and press down firmly so the shape is implanted into the flesh. Without removing it, cut away the excess flesh that is outside of the shape.
- Use the flat end of the bamboo stick to gouge details like veins on a leaf or just abstract lines or squiggles.
- Remove the cookie cutter and paint the raised surface.
- Follow the same process on the other half of the potato using a different cutter and colour of paint.
- You are now ready to apply to paper or fabric.
If you’ve made a picture with your potato stamp, then consider mounting it in an “Autumn Picture frame”
[Photograph by Linda Dunbar. Reproduction prohibited]
