Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Keep Calm . . . Craft On

Joining Nicole at Frontier Dreams today.


There is always a good bit of crafting going on around here.  Mostly knitting, though.  Recently, however, I was asked to coordinate the children's creation for our Waldorf preschool school auction.  (Our preschool is just that, a preschool and kindergarten.  This school does not offer a grades program.)  A painting.  Huh?  Me?  I don't paint.  And I had no idea how to help the children accomplish this even though I would have the resources of our teachers.  Then I came across this post from Passengers on a Little Spaceship and an idea was born . . .  perhaps stolen is more accurate of a description!


But then, what scene to create?  I decided on a rainbow bridge as an illustration of the birthday story told in Waldorf kindergartens the world round.  So, I came up with this little prototype:



And added an angel in the upper left hand side.  Of course, she is leading a child to the rainbow bridge!


So, how to turn that idea into something our 19 kindergarteners could create?  (Because I had decided I wasn't up for creating 3 projects with 60 or so children ages 2.5-6.  Plus, I thought the finished piece would have more appeal as a keepsake if created by the members of the kindergarten class.)


Last Wednesday morning, I carted my supplies to school.  My years of crafty hoarding were finally paying off.  I didn't buy a single thing for this project!  I'd had this Peace Fleece roving in my stash since Coco was 2 or 3!  This is how it went . . . .





And this is how the craptastic thing ended up . . .


I tried rotating this before uploading, but, apparently it didn't take. . . much like the felting!
Yes, indeed, folks, I learned something with this project.  The roving needs to be laid much more sparingly if it is to felt properly.  But, no worries!  Also among my stash of crafting goodies are felting needles.  I've already broken one finishing this up.  Next week I'll share a picture of the item post op.  I am happy to report that the prognosis is good!


On a happier note, here is the Rainbow Sweater I created for the auction.  Our auction is called the Rainbow Bridge Auction.  Can you see, now, from whence my inspiration came?






This is my own pattern.  I also made one last year.  But it came out slightly different.  Still trying to perfect the fit.  The yarn comes form a former Waldorf handwork teacher and can be found in her Etsy shop, Mama Jude's Plant Dyed Stuff.  And, of course, this project had it roots in my enormous stash.  I'd had visions of some rainbowy project several years ago and bought these lovelies from Judy. Two years later, I finally made something out of it.  Here is the first one: 


What are  you working on?

3 comments:

  1. Your sweater is beautiful! Someone lucky will be going home with an awesome handmade sweater come auction day. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. The rainbow sweaters are cute! I like the cuffs on the second one. The picture looks good, it shouldn't take much to shift the colours that moved, it will be lovely when finished. I bet all the children enjoyed helping

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow the sweater is divine!! I love rainbow colours - so happy :)

    ReplyDelete