The following instructions for making plant sticks were published in 1922. The idea of making plant sticks and having children paint them would be an awesome summertime project.
These plant sticks are excellent projects for the “Handy Boy” who likes to paint in bright colors, and they make a very effective addition to a flower bed.
The sticks may be made of any size or length desired. The butterflies and owl may be made of thin wood and fastened to the end of the sticks. In making them the coping saw will be useful, for with it the small curves may be shaped accurately, but care must be used to be sure the edges are square with the broad surfaces, and the only way to do this is by keeping the saw at right angles with the surfaces at all times.
The wood need not be more than 5-16” in thickness. The dotted squares will assist the “Handy Boy” in making them of any desired size, for he has only to enlarge the squares proportionally and copy the lines in their relation to the squares, and it will be an easy matter to make them of any size. If the owl is 8” high and the butterflies from 4” to 6” their largest way they will be satisfactory.
The colors may be made as brilliant as desired, for the colors mentioned are only suggestions.
Source: The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.), 27 May 1922.
