Moses in the Bulrushes

How to Make

1. To make the baby, paint the head of a wooden person with a flesh colour then leave to dry. To wrap the baby, stick 2 thin self-adhesive felt strips around the baby’s head and a wider felt strip around the body. Draw the eyes, nose and mouth with thin felt pens.
2. To make the basket, cut a 15cm diameter circle from brown self-adhesive felt, or use another colour. Mark a cross on the felt backing then cut 3cm along each line from the edge. Peel off the backing paper then carefully overlap the felt by 2-3cm at each cut to create a basket shape, with the sticky side inside the basket. Check the basket is big enough to fit the baby. The felt can be un-peeled and re-stuck to adjust the shape.
3. Make the basket handles with pieces of fibre pulled off the hessian roll. Cut the fibres into 12cm lengths, hold 4 or 5 fibres together, tie knots 2cm from the ends, curl the handle then press it in inside the basket onto the sticky felt. Make another handle in the same way then stick it on the opposite side of the basket.
4. Cut a 15cm diameter circle from hessian to line the basket. Pull off a few hessian fibres from the edges for a frayed effect. Press the hessian circle inside the basket.
5. Cut a 6cm strip from the width of the hessian roll. Fray the edges then stick it around the sides of the basket with double-sided tape or use fabric glue. Put the baby inside the basket.
6. To make a bulrush, cut a green pipe cleaner in half into a 15cm length. Wrap a brown pipe cleaner tightly around 3cm at one end. Make more bulrushes in the same way. Bend 2cm at the ends of the pipe cleaners then fix onto a small cardboard plate with sticky tape so the stalks stand upright. Cut thin green card strips for the leaves, bend the ends then stick them next to the bulrushes on the plate.
7. Paste blue tissue paper pieces over the base with PVA. Paste the tissue over the edges. Add tissue paper strips around the base of the bulrushes to help them stand up. Leave to dry.

Top Tip

Glue 2 paper plates together to make a stronger base for the model.