From a CANVAS Facebook post

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[Kids Creative Lab in Shibuya]

On Sunday, November 1, the Kids Creative Lab in Shibuya is hosting a workshop for kids and adults!
This month’s program features an electronic circuit made with LEDs and clay—take on the challenge of creating a creature that makes a part of its body light up!

For this project, we used “conductive clay” and “non-conductive clay.” Using this clay, a
battery, an LED, and a few alligator clip cables, we’ll create a circuit to make the LED light up.

Checking the positive and negative terminals of the current, and then skillfully combining conductive clay with non-conductive clay—or insulating clay.
Once the path for electricity is established this way, the LED lights up with a flash!
“It lit up!” “That’s my red! It’s so pretty!”
As the beautiful light illuminated the venue, delighted voices filled the air.

Now that you understand how it works, it’s finally time to start making your own creatures.
You’ll shape them by kneading and rolling out the clay to create your very own unique creatures.

Whether it was mixing different types of clay to create original colors or shaping creatures based on real-life glowing animals—and beyond just the designs themselves—the children would say things like,
“I want this part to glow, but why won’t it?”
or “Let’s connect this part and add some more clay.”
In this way, parents and children worked together through trial and error to figure out how to build electronic circuits, and many creations emerged that even made us exclaim, “Oh, I see!” In the
end, the venue was completely transformed into a “Glimmering Creature Garden.” We turned off the lights to explore the garden and listened to the creators introduce their own creatures.

Since the clay used in both projects can be made with ingredients you can find right in your kitchen at home, it would be fun to give it a try at home with your family.

At our Shibuya lab, under the title “Maker Kids Lab,” we will continue to offer new “hands-on” experiences that combine art and technology, as well as various forms of digital expression with analog experiences. We’re preparing programs starting next month so that parents and children can enjoy making things together, just like conducting experiments! Please come visit us!

*We are currently accepting applications for the period from December through March 2016!
http://www.canvas.ws/kenkyujo/shibuya/index.html