Episode 15 Nine Minute Ninja

Time to get my ninja on.

And my clothes!

I'm going to make something inspired by Catalan architect and artist

Antoni Gaudi.

Seeing as I've got loads of shoeboxes lying around,

I'm going to decorate one in the style of Gaudi and use it to keep

all my bits and bobs in.

I'm going to need a bowl, cos I'm going to make some salt dough.

And I'm still not baking a cake.

And some mix.

Now, the mix is half a cup of salt,

a whole cup of plain flour

and half a cup of water.

Now, you're probably wondering why I'm making this dough.

Well, I'm going to decorate my box with a lizard

and create some mosaic tiles.

SQUELCH

There you go. That's mixed in pretty well.

Now I need to start shaping it.

I'll just move these out of the way

cos I'm going to bring in a baking tray.

I've popped some greaseproof paper on there.

I'm going to take a third of my mix off.

Now I'm going to roll this bit into a sausage shape.

I want it fatter at one end,

getting thinner towards the other.

I'm just going to curl it to make a tail.

All right, he's looking good.

Now I'm going to make the tiles for my mosaic.

I'm going to cut lines.

Cut them in different sizes,

just so you've got a variety in your mosaic.

Right, they're all cut.

I am going to lay them out on my baking tray.

Now, I could leave these to dry for three days. But not me.

I'm going to use my oven!

And I'm going to sound like a Bake Off judge when I say,

"Ovens are hot, so be careful."

Put them in the oven at the lowest temperature for three hours

then leave to cool.

Now I'm ready to paint.

I'm going to paint the lizard bright and colourful.

You could say a bit gaudy.

-My name is Gaudi, not gaudy.

-Hey, Gaudi.

I didn't expect to see you time-travelling here.

I put the "art" into architecture,

adding in materials like ceramics, stained-glass and wrought iron work.

Here's some of my work now.

-I see you're recreating something similar now.

-I am.

But if you don't mind, could you shoo? Time is tight.

I'm going to add some blue now and create a nice tribal pattern

along the back.

Time to add some extra detail. First with orange...

..and then with green...

And finally, some eyes.

Now I'm going to stick him to the top of my box.

I'm just doing that with PVA glue.

Now I'm going to take it up another notch with a mosaic.

I could paint all these tiles, but not me.

I'm going to use my ninja skills.

Check it out.

I'm using more PVA glue to stick the tiles to my box.

The great thing is about PVA is that it disappears when it dries.

First I'm doing red...

then dark orange...

and finally, yellow.

You need to leave a little gap between your tiles to make it look

like an authentic mosaic.

Well, I'm going to continue that yellow around the sides.

And the final tile.

Wow. Look at that.

Well, I might as well put some bits and bobs inside my box.

I'm going to keep art supplies inside.

There we go. Check that out.

I think it will make a cool time capsule.

-Hi, Ricky!

-Oh, it's Lauren and Mark from The Dengineers.

How about making something with...

-..a broken broom!

-Sorry, guys.

Not this time. I've DEN something with that already.

-Ricky, Ricky, Ricky!

-Hey, what have these guys got?

-Ricky, can you make art with tinfoil?

-OK. I choose you.

Yay!

-What are your names?

-Hi, I'm Niamh.

-Hi, I'm Jack.

-Nice to meet you, Niamh and Jack. And where are you from?

-Belfast.

All right. I'll just go and grab my things.

OK, here we are.

I've got my trusty tinfoil.

What are you going to make, Ricky?

-I think I'm going to make an owl. And I'll show you how.

-Cool.

I'm going to start by covering my piece of cardboard in glue.

-Do you guys like owls?

-I like the way they can turn their head around.

Hopefully this will help you make some head-turning art.

Now I'm going to take the foil and I'm going to stick it over my piece

of cardboard, and I'm going to keep the shiny side up.

There you go.

Put a little bit of glue on the back, just to stick down the edges.

OK, so I've got my reflective surface now.

I'm going to use that to sketch the drawing of my owl onto.

What I'm doing now is I'm pressing into the foil and the card

with a pencil, kind of creating a relief picture.

Just finishing the outline here.

Now I'm going to glue string along the lines to add extra detail,

make it look really 3-D.

I'm going to use a brush here, just because you get a finer line.

So it's a little bit fiddly.

I'm just going along and gluing string along the lines

I've drawn with a pencil. What would you call an owl if you had one?

I would probably call mine Sir Hoot-a-lot.

Sir Hoots-a-lot?

Yeah, makes sense.

The tootsies done.

Finally, I'm going to put in Sir Hoots-a-lot's beak.

I'd like to point out that

Sir Hoots-a-lot's first name is Sandra.

So we need to cover this picture again in another layer of foil.

Now, I can wait for it to dry, or I could use some ninja skills.

-What do you reckon?

-Use the ninja skills.

Ninja skills it is.

Ninja skills. Now it's ready for another layer of foil.

So I'm just going to start pasting on the PVA glue again.

Now I can put over my second layer of foil.

Using my fingers, I'm just going to push the foil into all of the gaps.

As I'm pushing down on the string,

the picture's starting to appear through the foil.

Now, to get into the tighter nooks and crannies,

I'm going to use a cotton bud.

The reason I've done two layers is so that if I accidentally tear

this layer of foil, it still looks good underneath.

Right, I've pushed in all the gaps that I can now.

I'm going to add little bit more detail with a pencil.

I think I'm going to give him some nice feathers on his belly.

Now I've got two layers of foil on here,

this pencil's leaving really nice lines.

I'm going to put a little bit of detail on the face now.

There we are. I think it's ready for a final finishing touch.

I've got some black boot polish here.

With a piece of tissue I'm going to rub it all into the gaps

in the grooves that I've made.

So the boot polish is accentuating all of the detail that I've made,

and in some of the areas where the foil is ripped and you can

get through to the string, it's really thick and black

and it gives it a nice bit of contrast across the picture.

Right, I think that's it.

-Are you guys ready to see it?

-Yep.

-Yes.

-What you think of this?

-It's amazing, Ricky.

-What would you give it out of 10? BOTH:

-It's a 10!

I'll accept that score.

I think it's so good, it deserves the frame.

There we are.

Thanks for your suggestion, guys. You've been brilliant.

-Bye!

-Bye!

HOOT, HOOT

Now go to the website and get your ninja on!

Art ninja!