The raw silicone rubber material used to make medical handles has a specific shelf life. When expired, it can no longer be used for surgical/medical applications. Minnesota Rubber and Plastics generously donated a collection of colored slabs of their expired material to the Atwater Elementary Art Department.
Students are shown how to make simple shapes with the "rubber clay" and how to attach pieces. A distinction is made between their previous experience with water based clay where they had to "scratch and attach" parts in order to form a successful bond. With "rubber clay" they simply stick the parts together. Each student is given a small amount of each color that they can use for their figures. Student monsters must be small enough to fit in a baby food jar.
The finished projects are baked in an oven to cure the rubber (similar to how Polymer clay is baked). The resulting figures/monsters are firm, yet bendable rubber that is fun to hold and play with.
The final piece of this lesson deals with scientific principals of magnification, refraction and distortion of light through liquids. When the finished monsters are put in a baby food jar filled with water the monsters look larger, thus illustrating how how light is bent when passing through liquid or glass.
The Atwater Elementary Art Department is very grateful for the generous donation Minnesota Rubber has made for these fun projects!
