Mess free arty fun (PlayMais)

Member Name: evewidow

Product:	PlayMais
Date:	27/07/09 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: biodegradable , mess free , no glue or special equipment needed

Disadvantages: can be tricky to get the hang of , instructions hard to follow

My friend bought my son some playmais and a playmais model book for his birthday and i had never seen anything like it before .

It resembles those polystyrene like wotsit shapes that they use for packaging when you get a parcel delivered but this is all different colours.

It is made from cornstarch and food colouring so is quite safe for young children to play with. It is biodegradable so when you have finished with it you can pop it in your compost bin.

Included in the box along with the pieces are some sticks (i am still to work out what purpose these serve ) a craft knive and a cloth.

To make the models you soak the cloth in water then squeeze it out , you can squash , cut and roll the pieces into your desired shapes then to stick them together you simply moisten with the cloth , no glue no mess just a dab of water.

We also had a playmais book that instructs you how to make animals some of the models are very hard to make even for adults ( although i am not the most artistic) however we have managed to make an elephant ,an owl, a fox and a snail. The book shows you the picture then gives you step by step instructions but it must have been produced in a different language originally and a lot of the stages are either missing or there are some translation issues so you need to be a bit inventive , In my opinion the book would be too hard for children to understand on their own.

All in all Playmais is a good mess free alternative to other arts and crafts products and with a bit of practice can produce some good models

Summary: a nice change from usual art materials