I had been meaning to make apple prints with Bode ever since apples started falling mid-summer from our backyard tree. Well, the last of the apples finally fell last week, and so I knew the time had come that we needed to get this project done!
One of my favorite memories I have when I was a kid was making potato prints, and I remember doing them on white polyester fabric that had a thicker spongy quality. For this project too, I thought printing on fabric would make the end result a little more special than paper that one would typically think to use. Also the paint absorbs into the fabric to some degree making it less likely to smear and a neater choice overall. I had muslin lying around the house, so I mounted the fabric on foam core board, pulling it taut, and duck-taping it to the back of the board.
The materials we used were:
- apples sliced in half horizontally and vertically
- trays (the ones found in frozen food meals work great)
- folded paper towels to line the trays
- paint in the colors of apples (Green, Yellow, and Red)
- fabric-covered foam core
- Corn-cob holders (*these were great for picking up the apples, otherwise it gets messy quickly!)
Bode had fun dipping the apples and pressing them down on the fabric. At first I directed him to keep each apple into only one color paint and not mix them, but by the end I encouraged him to experiment, and the last print turned out to be my favorite with all the colors mixed.
Apple Print Number #1
Apple Print #2
Apple Print #3: My fave...
