Friendly Plastic Challenge One of the categories in AMACO's Friendly Plastic Challenge - entries due December 1, 2008 - is to create a butterfly for the Butterfly Project. The Butterfly Project is a project of the Holocaust Museum Huston which is collecting 1.5 million butterflies to represent the children who perished in the Holocaust. The butterflies are planned to comprise an exhibition scheduled for spring 2012 at the museum. Michelle Zimmerman who designs for AMACO and who is one of the contact points for the challenge is particularly touched by the choice of the Butterfly Project as a competition category. Michelle's father is a Holocaust survivor as is her aunt. Michelle says, "It's hard to understand what 1.5 million looks like. If you traveled a mile for every child, you'd be able to travel 40 times around the world's circumference and get to the moon and back twice. The entire populations of Fiji, Iceland, Guam, Virgin Islands and Greenland combined equal 1.5 million people. If you earned $50,000 a year, it would take you 30 years to earn a dollar for every child. If you live a normal lifespan, 1.5 million is the equivalent to a child being killed every ½ hour of your entire life. The Holocaust Museum Houston with the Butterfly Project is trying to show what 1.5 million looks like through these handmade butterflies. I hope the Butterfly Project helps teach the importance of compassion, love, tolerance, and the price of lost dreams. I am honored to be associated with AMACO and this project." With the 42 bright and metallic colors in the Friendly Plastic range, it would seem that Friendly Plastic and butterflies are a perfect match for each other. If you're curious as to how to work with Friendly Plastic here's a quick step by step from Helen Bradley on one way to create a butterfly. Steps Step 1 I like to sketch out my butterfly design on paper. Because I use cookie cutters to cut out the butterfly, draw around the inside edge of the cookie cutter so that you know what you're going to be working with and then draw in the shapes that you'll use to decorate the butterfly. Step 2 Cut pieces of Friendly Plastic the size and shape of the pieces that will decorate the butterfly and set aside. Step 3 Lay down one of the pieces that will be the background color of the butterfly. Place the Friendly Plastic on your work surface - I use a Ranger craft sheet over an AMACO Friendly Plastic work mat - and then heat with a heat gun. When that piece begins to soften scoot the next piece of Friendly Plastic into the softened edge and heat again until they join together. When the Friendly Plastic is softened and the pieces meld together, dip the cookie cutter into a small amount of water with some olive oil added and then press into the soft Friendly Plastic. Leave it until it is set and then remove the cookie cutter and the Friendly Plastic shape should pop out. Trim it with scissors to neaten. Step 4 To decorate the butterfly, place the cut out pieces that you set aside in position on the butterfly and heat to soften the Friendly Plastic and blend the pieces together. In less than an hour you should have a glorious glistening butterfly. Remember that the Holocaust Museum has requested that butterflies be flat and not dimensional to assist in storing them. They should also be no larger than 8 by 10 inches. Of course, cookie cutters are much smaller than this so they make a great starting point for creating your butterfly for the AMACO Challenge. To find more information about the AMACO Friendly Plastic Challenge - entries due December 1, 2008 - click here. To download an entry form for the AMACO Challenge, download this PDF.