Make a Milkweed Plant!

As a mom to a young child, I have a strong interest in teaching kids about nature, the environment, and the role we play in that. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to participate in a native plant presentation for a group of young kids at a local day camp. In preparation for this event, I created two sets of visual aids. The first one was comprised of three posters depicting different scenes: 1) a suburban home with fruiting trees and flowers all over the front yard, 2) a suburban home with mostly lawn and a a few trees, and 3) a Walmart parking lot. At the end of the presentation I asked the kids which scene they would prefer to live in if they were a bird or a bee. The kids got the idea right away and overwhelmingly chose the scene with lots of fruit trees and flowers. The second visual aid I created was a model of a common milkweed plant with a few insects commonly found on milkweed so the kids could see an example of a native plant up close.

I posted the milkweed model on Instagram and got a few messages asking me how I made it, so I thought I would write up a brief tutorial in case there are any teachers, artists, or anyone else out there interested in making one. I’m sure this method can be used to make other types of plants as well.

Supplies:

• Foam Sheets (light green) (Creatology foam sheet from Michaels)
• A package of 18″ stemwire (Ashland brand from Michaels)
• Green plastic garden stake (3-4 feet tall) from garden or Home depot
• Acrylic craft paint in various shades of green (DecoArt Sprout green, Sweet pea, red, white, yellow and black to create insects), pink for flowers.
• Air dry clay
• Floracraft florafom cone (green) (2.75″ x 6″
• 1″ star shaped cookie/fruit cutter
• Glue gun
• Some type of base to hold it up: could be a large piece of styrofoam, a block of wood with a hole drilled in it, etc. I used a small box with a large hunk of styrofoam inside.

STEP 1: Create the leaves:

Draw a milkweed leaf shape on a foam sheet, cut it out and use that cut piece as a template to trace more leaves on the foam sheet. Cut out all the leaves and place to the side. You will need 24 leaves.

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Warm up the glue gun. Grab a piece of floral wire and bend it a few inches from the top to create an oval-shaped lollipop. Make sure the wire loop is smaller than the foam milkweed leaves. Place one leaf on the table, add a good amount of hot glue, place the wire on the glue and place another leaf on top like a sandwich. Add more glue between the foam leaves to seal the edges. Set aside and place a heavy book on top of the leaf to help it adhere and stay flat. Repeat this process to make more leaves.

Draw a vein pattern on the leaf with a pencil and score the foam lightly. Paint the leaves creating a lighter central vein and diagonal veins along the leaf. Use a darker shade of green between the veins. I painted the entire leaf sprout green on both sides and then added lighter green veins. I let it dry a bit and went over with the sprout green again. Bend the leaf slightly to give it a more realistic shape.

STEP 2: Create the milkweed flower:

Method 1 (I did this):

A) Cut the florafom cone about 2/3 from the top (pointy side). This will leave you with a smaller cone and a flat piece. You will use the flat piece to make the flowerhead. Use a knife to round the edges of the flat piece. Poke a piece of floral wire through the bottom of the piece. Pierce through the top and bend the wire into a loop, then pull it down into the foam to secure it.

B) Take a handful of clay, knead it for a few seconds and roll it out between two sheets of parchment paper. Once the clay sheet is about 4mm thick, drape the clay over the florafoam piece and cover the piece completely. Use a pencil to lightly press into the clay all around the piece to create grooves. The flowers will sit in these grooves. Bend the wire halfway and place the piece in a tall cup or other place to let the clay dry. Let dry overnight and then paint pink.

C) Take another handful of clay, knead it for a few seconds, place it between a large sheet of parchment paper and roll it out like dough. Use a small star shaped cookie cutter or cut a small star shape out with a knife. Gently squeeze the points toward each other, creating a flower shape. Gently shape the petals by pinching each one. place on a flat surface to dry and press down slightly to flatten the bottom a little. Make as many flowers as you need (20+) to fill all the holes you created with the pencil. Let them dry overnight and then paint a lighter shade of pink than the flower head. Once everything is dry, glue the flowers to the round piece and place in a tall cup to dry.

Method 2 (What I realized might be easier): Skip A and B above and create the flowers. Poke a piece of floral wire through the bottom of each flower, pull it through the top and create a small loop. Pull the wire down a bit so the loop sits in the center of the flower. Add a small ball of clay to help cement the wire. Create several flowers and then tie them or weave them all together to make a flower head.

STEP #: Create the seedpod:

Use a knife to soften the edges of the small florafom cone. Shape it into a seed pod (tear drop shape). Roll out some clay, drape it over the foam and seal the edges. Use a pencil tip to make small holes in the clay; use a dragging motion to create a kind of spiky effect. Bend the wire half way down and place in a tall cup to dry for 24 hours. Paint the seed pod light green.

(Optional) STEP 4: Create the insects:

Use the air dry clay to create the general shapes of the insects. For antennae I cut pieces of floral wire and used plastic insect legs from other plastic bugs I had. Let the insects dry overnight and then paint them.

STEP 5: Create the stem:

This step is pretty easy. Just insert the plastic garden stake into your support base. Make sure it doesn’t tip over easily.

STEP 6: Assemble the flower:

Attach the flower first by holding the flower up against the top of the garden stake and wrapping the wire around tightly. Attach 3-4 leaves in the same fashion under that. Hold the leaf where you want it and then wrap the wire around the stake until the leaf is fixed. Bend the leaf slightly to make it look more natural. After attaching 3-4 leaves, attach the seedpod underneath. Continue to attach leaves in an alternate position and bend them slightly to create a curved leaf. Glue the insects on the plant. I glued a milkweed beetle to the flower, a monarch caterpillar to a leaf, and the milkweed bugs on the seedpod. Cut the leaf the caterpillar is on and paint a little white around the edges to make it more realistic. Wrap some green ribbon around the stem to hide the wire if desired.

I worked on this milkweed model for about 3 days and it was so worth it because the kids loved it! Please let me know if you build this model or a similar model. And please feel free to share this post!