For years the only kind of sculpture I did with the kids was clay. A couple of years ago I got into these aluminum foil sculptures.

I went onto to Amazon to find the exact product I used but, couldn't find it. It's basically these Craft plaster rolls. I'm pretty sure it's what they use for casting broken arms but, could be that these plaster rolls are specifically for crafting.

It's really a form of paper mache without having to make the paper mache solution and then dip newspaper in it.

This method is quite easy.

You make an armature which means the model for the sculpture and then wrap it in this plaster that is wet.

I had the kids make their sculptures out of aluminum foil and tape.

It doesn't really matter how much tape is used to hold the sculpture together because everything then gets covered over with this plaster.

Foil is easy to squish into shape which is why it's a good armature.

After they create their sculpture out of the foil we take a flat container and fill it halfway with water.

We cut the pieces of the plaster that is on the roll, dip each piece into water and start wrapping around the foil sculpture.

Be aware that there is a tremendous amount of dust that comes off of the plaster so you would do very well to cover the table you are working on with plastic. This way you just roll it up and throw it out when done.

Here is a more sophisticated mermaid a girl made and then painted it.

This unicorn was created by an 8th grader and is not something that really young children are capable of.

Here are some simpler sculptures. A snake and a butterfly.

We mounted this ballerina onto a piece of cardboard. I don't remember how we did so but I assume it was with hot glue.

They can also add collage materials to their sculptures as you see here.

One of the things to be aware of is that if they use too much paint on the sculptures after they are dry, then the paint might reactivate the plaster as it softens when wet.