Creative Play: Homemade Charcoal

I love when a craft book inspires me to take action. This happened recently when I borrowed The Organic Artist from our local library.

I love it even more when the rest of my crew is eager to try a new activity with me :)

Making charcoal is the perfect summer time DIY craft. If you want the full know-how, get the book, you won’t be disappointed!

We made homemade charcoal from a variety of plants in our yard, including bamboo, yucca, grapevine, and some random twigs. Each plant produced a slightly different texture for the charcoal.

To get us all up to speed on how to draw with charcoal, my 9-year old son looked up some videos online and then we drew, and drew and drew some more.

We all found it to be a very satisfying and relaxing activity.