Make your own test tubes for a doll doctor or science lab...

        A test tube, also known as a culture tube or sample tube, is a common piece of laboratory glassware consisting of a finger-like length of glass or clear plastic tubing, open at the top and closed at the bottom.
       We crafted our wooden set of test tubes using: recycled cardboard, wooden dowel pegs, red, black and white papers, white school glue, a hole punch and silver nail polish.

 

These tiny dowel pegs are normally used to seal holes in woodworking
 projects but here we have used them to represent doll sized test tubes.

 

Step-by-Step Directions:

1. First measure and cut lengths of paper in white or red to wrap around the wooden pegs. The white represents an 'empty' tube, the red represents 'blood' samples.
2. Using white school glue, smear a light coating on the stripes of paper and wrap these around the wooden pegs.
3. Punch out from the papers, tiny circular shapes to glue on the tops of the test tubes to indicate these are either empty (white) or full (red).
4. Use the silver nail polish to paint the bottoms of the test tubes.
5. Now make a stand for the test tubes to help keep them upright. Cut stripes for the top of the rack and use the hole punch to indicate where each wooden peg will slide into the rack.
6. Cut and shape, using cardboard, the lower half of the rack (see photo), and attach to the top.
7. Use white paper to cover the entire rack. I painted over this at the top using more silver nail polish and also pasted on a black stripe to decorate the rack all around.

Left, test tubes are usually placed in special-purpose racks. Right, some of our wooden test tubes are shown
here as empty, half full and very full with 'blood' samples. These doll doctor's toys won't shatter like glass
ones would. They look great in a medical cabinet or doll student science lab!