Sensory art

For many years now, my work has involved working with people with severe physical disabilities, often unable to use traditional art materials. I constantly searching for new and interesting ways of engaging them with art and art mediums. I had a eureka moment this week with a student who attends my class and likes to use water and different containers. I added to the warm water, little pieces of coloured cellophane, this created great colours as the pieces overlapped in the water, like a kaleidoscope, and so was very visually stimulating. Also because the warm water heated the plastic cellophane a little, it made it very tactile and almost skin like. Today I shaped the cellophane into butterflies. I am thinking I may add gelatin to thicken the water next and make it easier to suspend the cellophane at different levels in the containers.