Making It – Ossian Makes a Tipi

Ideas to Try

Put up a tent
1. Put up a modern tent.
2. Draw a table listing the similarities/differences between your tent and a tipi (natural/manufactured materials, parts/tools used, shape/height/area covered, etc).

Make a mini-tipi
You will need: art straws, small piece of cotton cloth (about 25 x 25cm), modelling dough, string. Ruler, scissors, paints.
For outdoor tipi: Three long bamboo poles, string, old sheet or similar.

1. Make a mini-tipi, using art straws for the poles and cotton cloth as the cover. Modelling dough can be used as a base to hold the straws. Experiment with different numbers and arrangements of ‘poles’ at different distances from one another. Which arrangement is the most stable? Try different shapes of cloth for the cover (circle, square, triangle, half-circle). Which is best?
2. Paint your tipi cloth with animal designs. You could use the library or the links on this site to research your designs.
3. Draw a diagram to show how you made your tipi.
4. If possible, go on to build an outdoor tipi using garden bamboo, string and an old sheet. Follow the same design you used to make your model. Can you build a tipi big enough to get inside?

Make a waterproof material
You will need: tubs/containers, small squares of cotton cloth, tape, sugar, salt, leaves, mud, paint, wax crayons, vaseline. Teaspoon, measuring cylinder.

1. The Native Americans used waterproof buffalo hides to make their Tipis. Ossian uses cloth. How can cloth be made waterproof?
2. Experiment with squares of cotton cloth, treating them with different agents, e.g. glue, sugar solution, salt solution, crushed leaves, mud, paint, wax crayon, Vaseline, etc. Give squares covered with glue, mud, or sugar/salt solutions time to dry.
3. Test to see which treatment works best. Tape each square over a container. Now drip a teaspoonful of water onto each square.
4. Measure the amounts of water collected in each container. Which material was the best at keeping out the water? Make a graph to show your results.

Make a windchime
You will need: string or thin garden wire, sandpaper, bamboo. Small saw, drill, wire cutters or scissors.

1. Cut different lengths of bamboo.
2. Drill two small holes at one end of each piece of bamboo.
3. Thread string or wire through each piece and arrange the lengths of bamboo to make a wind chime similar to the one seen in the video.
4. Try different arrangements until you get a pattern of sounds you are happy with.
5. Sand off any rough edges.

Safety
Before you start, think about how to use this equipment safely. Will you need to wear safety gear? Check with your teacher if you are not sure about safety requirements.