Wandering along the beach is often a magical moment. And it can be surprising the things you can find. If you are lucky, you might find an interesting pebble or some glass that has been smoothed out by the ocean. You may even find pieces of netting, string or rope. If you are really lucky you might some driftwood. Driftwood has an usual look to it. Driftwood is usually smoothed off by the ocean as well.

And so, if we can find some driftwood, we can make driftwood characters. Sometimes the shape of the wood will tell us what character we should make. And each character we make will be totally unique.

Once we have collected a number of pieces of driftwood, we can place them all on the table together. Lay them out in different way and try and generally position them into the shape of the character you might make. Keep moving them around and imagine what personality your character might have.

Don't worry if your character is a bit wonky. These can be very funny.

Once you are happy with your layout, start gluing your driftwood character together. Make sure you hold the wood together until the glue takes hold.

So it is a good idea to paint your wooden character white to start. The reason we paint it white is because when you paint colours on top, the colours will be much brighter. Also the first coat of white paint will fill in any holes or little cracks in the wood.

When you make a driftwood character, you can, of course, leave parts of the wood unpainted. This can be interesting too.

Once you have painted your character white, let the paint dry thoroughly.

Continue painting using different colours. Paint some eyes and a mouth and any other features your character needs. Use bright colours and bring your wooden person or animal to life.

If you were lucky enough to find some string or rope on your beach walk, we can use it now. Use the string or rope to make arms or legs. Glue the string or rope in position and hold it until it sticks.

And that is our funny "make driftwood characters" project completed. We would love to see what you create. Take some pictures and add them to your studio on this website. Then comment down below, and let us know your studio name so we can check your studio out.

Now all you need to do is make up a funny story for your characters to take part in.