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Photo of a slate wall.

List of materials

Things that you can use to make other things from.

Photo of a pot of ash for making lye
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Lis forLye

Lye is a corrosive, alkaline chemical. It was traditionally made from hardwood ash, and is an ingredient in soap. Modern lye is called caustic soda, or sodium hydroxide and is no longer made from ash.

Mis forMasonry

Masonry is a way of constructing buildings out of any type of heavy block. Different types of masonry include bricks, stone and cinder blocks.

Mis forMesh

Mesh is a type of fabric that is woven with holes in it. Mesh may be made from wire rather than cloth thread. You can buy mesh clothes and mesh insect screens. The photo is of a mesh pocket in a backpack.
Photo of some twisted metal
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Mis forMetal

There are many different kinds of metal. The metals that are used in everyday life are hard, usually shiny, and smooth. Metals are good conducters, which means they can change temperature very fast. If you stir some hot water with a metal spoon for too long you can burn your fingers as the spoon heats up. Most metal is soft enough to be bent into interesting shapes, although for very thick metal it can take a lot of force to bend it. Some metal, like the kind that goes into knife blades, is hardened and can't be bent.
Photo of bricks and mortar
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Mis forMortar

Mortar is used to hold things like bricks together when you are building a house or other building. Mortar is made from sand mixed with cement or lime, and sets hard.
Photo of mother of pearl
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Mother of pearl is a very hard, attractive substance that is is frequently used in jewellery or as inlays on furniture, wooden boxes or even the handles of guns. Mother of pearl, or nacre, is the iridescent material lining the shells of some sea molluscs, which includes snails, clams and other shellfish. Most commonly, mother of pearl was used for centuries to make buttons from.
Photo of some people standing in mud.
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Mis forMud

Mud is what you get when you mix water and dirt together. Mud is sticky, squishy, squelchy and great fun to play with. If the mud is really wet you can squish around in it, and if it is only a little bit wet you can mold it into shapes like mud pies. Even though mud is so fun, adults don't like children to play in the mud as it is very dirty, and they don't want to have to wash your clothes afterwards.

Pis forPebble

Pebbles are small, rounded stones with no sharp corners. Pebbles are usually made by being worn smooth by water over time, so you most often find them in a river bed or on the beach.

Pis forPlank

Planks are wide pieces of lumber. Planks are generally quite large - a smaller, thinner plank would be called a board.
Photo of a broken leg in plaster
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Pis forPlaster

Plaster is a white powdered substance that is made from gypsum, a kind of stone. When water is added to plaster it stays as a wet paste for a little while but then it goes hard. As it goes hard it gets hot - plaster setting is an exothermic reaction. If you are going to put plaster on your skin you should do it slowly, in thin layers or you could get burnt. Today, plaster is most commonly used mixed with lime to line the inside walls of houses, or put into bandages to hold a broken bone in place as it heals.