Many Paths Noodle Maze

People have been making sacred paths, both real and metaphorical, for a really long time. Sometimes people make physical labyrinths to walk through to help them feel closer to spiritual things. They're often very intricate and detailed, but anyone can make a simple maze for fun. Mazes are paths, too! They teach us to overcome obstacles and find our own way.

Here's a simple way to make a maze out of a paper plate and pasta!

-uncooked pasta

-paper plate

-glue

-markers

-a small sphere (like a bead, marble, or peppercorn)

Take some pasta and pour a little bit of it out onto a plate. Take the paper plate you're going to use as the base for your maze.

(Note: You could use a piece of cardboard or posterboard as a base for your maze, too! I like using a plate, because the fact that it bends up at the edges means that your ball stays in the maze. You could get a similar effect by using a shoe box lid.)

Play around with the dried pasta, putting it in different configurations to see what sort of maze you can make. This will depend on what kind of pasta you have on hand! Penne, which is what I used, is ideal. You could also use rotini in a similar way. Using elbow pasta or shells will just require a lot more noodles placed closer together. If you use spaghetti, you'll want to use a smaller ball in your maze, like a peppercorn. Angel hair or fettuccine won't provide enough definition for a good maze, so those aren't great choices.

Once you're happy with the shape of your maze, take a pen or pencil and make little dots at the ends of each noodle. These marks will help you position them when you glue them down in the next step.

Remove one or two noodles at a time, put down a line of glue, and then stick them down. Once you've glued down every noodle, set it aside to dry completely.

I decided to make mine rainbow! You could even color inside your maze if you want.

Drop a marble or a bead at the start of your maze, and tilt your plate. Can you guide the ball all the way to the exit without touching it?