Creativity Cookies: Marshmallow Medium

[Dan Goodwin]

Once you’ve chosen a specific medium to work in for your next creative project, you’ll automatically have a set of ideas and preconceptions about what’s possible in this medium.

You’ll tell yourself that anything you create in this medium SHOULD be of a specific shape, size, content, dimension, tone, colour, and a dozen other restrictions.

This Creativity Cookie will help you throw all those restrictions out the window and create in your own unique way!

Head over to Creativity Portal for the full Cookie, try it out for yourself, then head back here to share your comments and experiences.

Click here to get the Creativity Cookie: Marshmallow Medium

[Camille]

This is so funny Dan...I have experimented with marshmallows! I got the big ones and made prints by dipping marshmallow into pigment.

They came out really beautiful...gosh...I cannot seem to find them...maybe I will make some more, but with expansion on this marshmallow idea!!!

[Dan Goodwin]

Camille you could've written this Creativity Cookie with all the boundaries you break! I'd have been amazed if you hadn't experimented with marshmallows!

Yes make some more and show us what you come up with?

What about the list of all the possible things you could create/do with a marshmallow?

[Camille]

OK, Dan, I will do both...more marshmallow prints plus make a list of all the possible things that could be created with a marshmallow!

This is Memorial Day weekend, so there may be a marshmallow shortage at the stores, because of all the marshmallow toasting that people do on this holiday...but I will definitely be working on buying and using the marshmallows...both the big ones and minis! : )

[Mary Hicks]

So amazing -- I have this incredible urge to go buy marshmallows and just make a big ball and see what happens...

Dan -- are you thinking along these lines, or are you just "pimping" us? I'd love to see you create something with a marshmallow ball -- as long as it isn't "Salsa ala Marshmallow!" Go, Dan! Go, Dan! I dare you.

[June Walker]

Hi Dan, I thought this a fun idea. Stretching those marshmallows. How innovative this is.

[Camille]

I was brainstorming about all the ways to use marshmallows creatively...it was fun to do.
I should have written them down as they occurred but I did not feel like getting out of my cozy corner this morning because I was having a good laugh while in that little comfy spot...here's what I remember of ideas... a lot of them are totally facetious...but humor can't hurt...

Stack bags and bags of marshmallows in layers and sew the bags together to make a lovely air mattress

Construct a life-size figure out of cellophane wrapped marshmallows.

Construct a "Puff the Magic Dragon" out of marshmallows and toothpicks

Layer alternating sheets of interesting papers with groups of marshmallows the same size as the paper sheets until it turns into some kind of tower of paper and marshmallows.

Dye marshmallaws all different colors and string them as if they were beads.


How long will a marshmallow last if it is covered with polyermer mediums and painted and varnished...now those would make great beads to string...just remember to make holes in them before pouring on the polymers.

Make a very quiet and sticky marshmallow set of chimes.

Take photos of marshmallows set up in unusual ways.

Build a marshmallow igloo.

Make a representation of the Leaning Tower of Pisa out of Marshmallows

Melt marshmallows, add dyes to them, and while still maleable, use like pla-doh.

See if marshmallow works like silly putty. Warm them a bit and stick a rolled ball of them on comic strips to see if it will transfer the pictures.

Find the recipe for making marshmallows and make a humongous marshmallow the size of the Chrysler Building in NYC. Open up a glamourous shopping mall inside of it.

Fill a whole athletic sized pool to the brim with marshmallows and use as a trampoline.

Use marshmallows and toothpicks instead of tinker toys to make stuff.

Make marshmallow kebobs but instead of roasting them on an open fire, stick them in the freezer and see what happens.

Skewer marshmallows on long sticks and mark a nature path with them...

Stuff all gun barrels up with marshmallows and hope that the bullets get stuck.

Use a minimarshmallow to fill in a broken tooth til you get to the dentist to get a real crown.

Make earrings out of mini and large mallows.

Make buttons out of minis.



Stick small thin candles into marshmallows and see if they will float in a bowl of water along with pretty flower petals.

Slice marshmallows into wheels and play with circular designs...stack them, flatten them,
chew part of the wheels to vary the circle shapes.

Walk bare foot on a bed of marshmallows and see if you can do it without getting sticky feet.

Melt marshmallows into sticky sculptures and embellish with rhinestones.

Make a comfortable chair or ottoman out of marshmallows.

Make a marshmallow garden. Cut into flowerry shapes and stick with tooth pick stems.

Staple marshmallow wheels to surfaces, wrap with colorful cellaphane...

Make wire sculptures using marshmallows as an interesting element.

Make sticky marshmallow sauce finger paintings.

Use marshmallows instead of bbq coals and see what happens when you light it up...

Play "stack the marshmallows" . Whoever makes the tallest stack wins and gets to eat them all!

Cover unsightly cracks in walls until you remember to get to the hardware store to get real spackle.

Use melted mini marshmallow as glue dot to secure postal envelopes.

Make a marshmallow dart board and marshmallow darts with minis and toothpick and try to hit the bulls eye.

Use melted marshmallows spread like fly paper.

Build a house using different sized marshmallows as bricks and paint it nice colors.

Make marshmallow sticky notes.

Dye marshmallows two colors and play checkers with them.


Mini marshmallows make great earplugs...they stick nicely inside the ear! : )

Also good to stick between toes while polishing toenails : )

Cut slits in large

[Camille]

cont'd

Cut slits in large marshmallow and use as a photo holder...sticks on refrigerator door too!

Use a large one as a door stop.




This kind of brainstorming list is a riot to create and it is also helpful to allow even the facetious ideas to as springboards for something more feasible.
It is ok to be ridiculously serious, or seriously ridiculous...
That is what I learned while I was making this list. And the list gets longer even as I sign off now...PHEW!

[Dan Goodwin]

Camille, your list itself is a work of creative genius!

My favourites are -

Stack bags and bags of marshmallows in layers and sew the bags together to make a lovely air mattress.

Build a marshmallow igloo.

Find the recipe for making marshmallows and make a humongous marshmallow the size of the Chrysler Building in NYC. Open up a glamourous shopping mall inside of it.

Stuff all gun barrels up with marshmallows and hope that the bullets get stuck.

Play "stack the marshmallows" . Whoever makes the tallest stack wins and gets to eat them all!

Cut slits in large marshmallow and use as a photo holder...sticks on refrigerator door too!

but every one is highly inventive!

So... Which one are you going to make first? : )

[Camille]

Thanks Dan...
It is true, all of us are very inventive, for sure!
If we all got together to have an on-going brainstorming list on this subject at CCS, I imagine that the ideas would be infinite, with all that collective ingenuity coming into play!

I'd love to make a humongous marshmallow the size of the Chrysler Building...!!!! : )

I think the mattress one would be a great project to for an installation piece at the local museum space! I could write them up a proposal!

At home it might be cool to continue with marshmallow print experiements and also make the alternate paper/marshmallow stack...

Happy Marshmallow Magic to all from Camille

[Dan Goodwin]

Camille, you could do your version of Tracey Emin's (in)famous bed with your giant marshmallow creation!

You've embraced the whole essence of this Creativity Cookie, it's all about opening your mind to what's possible in certain mediums, not sticking to just what you think you should be creating...

[Camille]

Oooh, Dan...Tracey Emin's bed is a very sad and personal statement...

My version would probably be draped with Sponge-Bob sheets, coloring books and crayons, confetti, glitter, and cellophane excelsior, along with a bottle of Cocoa Marsh milk, and a giganto box of MALLOMARS !!!

[Camille]

for those who are too young to know what Cocoa Marsh is:
It was a brand of chocolate syrup made in the 70's...
Anybody else remember drinking milk mixed with Cocoa Marsh???

http://www.inthe70s.com/food/chocolatemarsh0.shtml