Daisy Maker Badges: What Crafts Did You Do?

This is one of a series of posts created from the results of surveys I did on the "Maker" badges GSUSA released this year.  There are three badges:  Art and Design, Created and Innovate, and Craft and Tinker.  Rather than being focused on how to do particular crafts, these badges are very open-ended as to what crafts can be used, and instead focus on general artistic, design or creative principles.  While the VTK plans offer a variety of suggested crafts and even give full-fledged instructions for some, in general, according to my surveys, leaders chose to do their own thing.  

Twenty people responded to the Daisy survey, and of them, fifteen had done one of these badges, so the sample size of this survey is very small and should not be considered representative of much of anything.  

Art and Design

This badge focuses shapes, colors and media used to create art.  The VTK plans call for doing the badge over two meetings with two major crafts and some drawings.  77% of people chose to do a craft they thought of rather than one suggested in VTK. 11% chose options from VTK and the others did one of each.  While VTK gave instructions on using a salad spinner to create spin art, no one chose to do that project. 

Here are the projects people said they did for Daisy Art and Design

• We made Valentine's paintings inspired by parents 
• Different stations with different art mediums. 
• At the start we talked about planning the art/design. The girls made art with shapes. We learned to use watercolor. The girls learned 4 different techniques. Next they made art for someone else using one of the techniques.
• Sidewalk chalk creations
• We made recycled paper hearts.  Then the girls painted them and we delivered them to a local assisted living facility.
• We had a member of the local fiber guild attend the meeting. She talked being an artist (#1), showed the girls different ways that fibers can be used to make art - different types and showed them a spinning wheel (#2), and then we did a wet felting project (#3)
• Guest speaker was from a creative reuse business.  Together we reused cookie case cardboard to make play ovens and cookies.
• We visited a pottery studio
• An art teacher guest speaker taught girls how to draw their faces and then later in the meeting they painted canvases. 

Create and Innovate

This badge is about crafting solutions to problems and using the design process to improve things.  Only two troops completed this badge.  One used craft ideas from VTK; the other leader came up with her own projects.  VTK offered directions on how to make a piggy bank but no one used them.  I forgot to ask what crafts people did for this badge. 

Craft and Tinker

Craft and Tinker focuses on learning about tools and materials and then on the purpose of a craft and how tinkering with its form or features can improve it.  Eleven troops earned this badge.  Six of them did three or more crafts in connection with this badge. Three did two crafts and two did one.  

Here are the projects people said they did for this badge:

• The girls were given a wide range of craft items and recycled items and given free range to create something to solve a problem.
• Swaps, air dry clay, button bracelets
• It was Christmas time so we made ornaments and did an exchange. They made three different ornaments using different crafting skills. For the exchange it was a like a secret Santa. The girls drew a paper with the name of another girl. They made them and then tinkered them to fit the person.
• Made a tie pillow and a leprechaun trap
• Bird houses- we bought kits but the girls designed them
• Decorated donuts, Styrofoam city, pinch pots
• We provided a wide variety of materials and tools, we discussed what all the tools and materials were for and the different purposes (adhesive vs cutting vs coloring etc.). We also explained what tinkering was and that we would do it along the way. Then we let the girls have at it and make anything they wanted. After girls got a ways in to making something we would have them share what they were doing and how and everyone came up with ways to try to do it better, some of which were put into action in the spot. Most girls made more than one thing.
• Our intent was making Christmas gifts. We setup stations to allow them to pick which one(s) to do, and they could do more than one of a certain item for example if they wanted to gift it to mom and grandma, etc. the options were 1. Picture frame, 2. Bath salts, 3. Planter (using upcycled tin can), 4. Fridge Magnet
• Bird house, bird feeder, picture frame, Christmas ornaments
• Made birdhouses, clay pots, craft on own
• We built butterfly houses and bird feeders between two meetings

Below this post are tags you can click on to read related posts.  I did similar surveys for Brownies and Juniors and of course, the Daisy survey covered a lot that is not covered in this post.  To find the other posts in this series, click on the "Maker Badge Survey" tag (but if you are reading this when it is first published, it is the first post in the series, stay tuned for more).