Friday's Nature Table

You are most welcome to share this great resource on your own blogs... (save the above Friday's Nature Table button to your desktop and then add it to your blog as a picture gadget linking to this code...

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Welcome, Friends!

Happy New Year... may your 20011 be filled with happiness, health and lots and lots of laughter.

Friday's Nature table is where we share our inspiration with each other. I can't tell you how many wonderfully fantastic ideas we have found from your links... your blogs, your creativity, your families, your loving... has touched my heart and enriched my life.

Discovering Waldorf - 'Encourage Art and Creativityl'

Oh my gosh, friends... I take a break for a day and a week slips by. So sorry for my absence but, rest assured, we have been having fun! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas filled with love, laughter and lots and lots of magic.

I am delighted to introduce Ren today. How can anyone with such a dreamy name be anything but an artist? When I found Ren's blog, I was enthralled by her aura of creativity and how she is sharing it with her children. I am extra excited to share her article today on how to encourage our children to express their creativity through art... enjoy!

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Art and Creativity are intrinsically connected as one is essentially the expression of the other. Humans, especially children, are fundamentally creative beings. Through Art Education children gain confidence in their creative thinking and problem solving abilities.

Art Education is not about teaching children to be artist or creative but rather a means of facilitating overall learning success. Through art and art appreciation children develop understanding, empathy, expression, imagination, positive self-esteem and communication skills.

Working as a docent and teacher, one is trained to ask leading questions. I am a huge believer in ‘child guided’ discussions when talking about art. It never ceases to amaze me how one single piece of art work can garner so many different interpretations. I have written down some guidelines to help facilitate talking about art work with children. Remember: giving children the proper vocabulary is empowering and makes for a thoughtful dialogue.

Taking children to art galleries and museums is a great way to teach them about art, however, there are resources all around us that do not require leaving the home. Many books, magazines, calendars, post cards and printed reproductions offer the opportunity to discuss and thus stimulate imagination and encourage creative thinking.

Start off by emphasizing that artists create art as a means of expression and encourage them to express how the art makes them feel. Remind them that there are no wrong answers!

The Elements of Art are the visual tools that an artist uses to create a work of art. These elements in turn help give us words to talk about what we see- when we look at a piece of art.

The Element of Art (or Composition) are applicable to all styles and mediums of art.

Color:

Name the colors. Introduction of primary colors (red, blue, yellow) and secondary colors (orange, green, violet).
Are the colors dark (sad), bright (happy), warm or cool? Does the use of color help us establish the mood, time of day, weather or season of the work? How do certain colors attract your attention? How is the artist using color?

Line:

A line can be the outline of a shape or used to create patterns, movement and sound. They can give direction and attract attention. Examples of lines are straight, diagonal, curved, zigzagged.

Where do you see lines? How is the artist using lines to tell a story or make a statement?

Shape:

Is a two dimensional enclosed space. Shapes are created by an outline or contrasting colors. Examples of shapes are geometrical (square, triangle etc.) or organic (free form with curving and irregular outlines). Is the use of shapes used to emphasize? Are the shapes creating a pattern or rhythm? Are the shapes balanced? Are they in harmony and organized?

Texture:

Simply put is the way the art would feel if you touched it. Texture is essentially connected to the medium or material that the artist uses. Is a metal statue going to feel hot, cold, smooth, bumpy? A painting may be manipulated through the use of layering or brush strokes. Is there a part of the painting that looks smoother?

In our ever rapidly changing world we need to channel our creativity. Enjoying an artists creation, combined with innovating and thoughtful thinking, creates sophisticated thinkers and action oriented problem solves. Art education and confidence in creative interpretations as well as initiation are essential skills to the development of learning.

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Thank you, Ren... what inspirational words for the new year. And that last photo... magic!!

Ren's blog is called Lady of the Arts and is filled with such gorgeous images, ideas and inspiration... pop in for a visit.

Here are the other articles in the Discovering Waldorf Series.

Blessings and magic,
Donni

Friday's Nature Table

You are most welcome to share this great resource on your own blogs... (save the above Friday's Nature Table button to your desktop and then add it to your blog as a picture gadget linking to this code...

http://themagiconions.blogspot.com/search?q=Friday%27s+Nature+Table)

Welcome, Friends!

Friday's Nature table is where we share our inspiration with each other. I can't tell you how many wonderfully fantastic ideas we have found from your links... your blogs, your creativity, your families, your loving... has touched my heart and enriched my life.

Handmade Christmas Gifts - Paper Mache Nest.

Our granny loves birds nests. She has a collection of discarded nests that she has picked up on her walks. They are so pretty to look at and a wonder to see how intricately the husband birds have woven them together.

Her love of nests in mind, the kids and I have made her this nest for Christmas.

We made the shell of the nest from paper mache. Teddy enjoyed ripping an old newspaper into long strips.

We use an all natural flour and water recipe to make our paper mache.

* 1 part flour to 5 parts water.
* Mix the flour with about 1 TBS of hot water until if forms a smooth paste. Add boiling water.
* Boil for a few minutes
* Allow to cool

We used balloons as our molds. We blew up the balloons (had a little play with them) and then covered them in strips of the newspaper dipped in the flour paste.

Add layer after layer until the newspaper is thickly packed.

I love this flour paste as I can let my kids get wonderfully messy without fearing that they are also getting covered in nasty chemicals.

Set paper mache balloons in the sun to dry. When dry, use a box cutter to cut an oval opening into them... and, yay, pop the balloons.

We decided to cover our nest in a fragrant mixture of dried chamomile and lavender.

Cover the 'nests' in glue and roll them in the dried herbs.

Leave in the sun to dry.

Line the inside with dried moss... we use two different kinds.

Add a few wooden speckled eggs.

We think Granny will LOVE her Christmas gift! (but I must admit that it's sooooo sweet we can hardly give it away)

Merry Blessings and magic,
Donni

Handmade Gifts - Let's make a Ball.

On our quest to make handmade Christmas gifts this year, we made our girl cousins Flower Fairies the other day. Today, we made our boy cousins wonderfully colorful woolen balls.

We used my wool scraps and wet felted them to make the balls. All we needed was wool roving (found online), liquid dish washing detergent, warm soapy water and elbow grease. Kids love wet felting projects... its cathartic to work with the wool and the warm soapy water. I find that the beginning of wet felting is often frustrating for children so I always start off and then hand the project over to my kids when the wool has somewhat bound.


Start with a big handful of colorful wool roving.


Roll it gently in your hands to round it. Put a little dish washing liquid into the palm of your hand and smooth it gently over the wool blob. Keep 'smoothing' it as if you were smoothing a clay ball. Add a little warm water to the ball and smooth again.


Soon, the wool will soap up and you will continue rolling it between your hands... very gently at first as if you were rolling a delicate glass ball. Keep adding a few drips of warm water. After a few minutes, you will feel the wool ball firm up. When this happens, you can apply greater pressure in your rolling. Roll it around and around in your hands, firmer and firmer.


Your woolen ball will get hard and seamless. When it is the desired firmness, rinse it very well and leave it in the sun to dry.


Voila! We have made this ball for our little cousin, Spencer, who is 1. It is just the right size for little hands to grasp. The texture is wonderful too and I'm sure he'll mouth it with delight. We have made one for our other cousin, Finley, too. We know that Finley, who is 3, will love his too. It's a super firmness for a young child to learn to play catch with... it's just right for throwing and will not hurt if Fin if he misses catching it and it bonks him in the face.


Merry Blessings and magic,
Donni

Let's make Dried Flower Ormaments.

Some more handmade ornaments are bringing their magic to our Christmas tree. In the Waldorf tradition, we have tried to use natural materials when making our handmade ornaments. Nature is so full of treasures... with a little thought and creativity, just about anything we collect from the outdoors can be turned into pretty ornaments.

Today, we used the flowers and leaves that we had pressed in the autumn. It's totally amazing how wonderfully preserved their colors are... so bright and sunny.


Kitty always collects all manor of treasures on our walks. We pressed the flowers in the flower press she got from her gran for her last birthday.


We love this flower press... it's so easy to use. It consists of two wooden boards and clamp bolts that are twisted to press the flowers. It works wonderfully and would be really easy to make.


When Kitty opened it and saw the bright colors of the pressed flowers she gasped in excitement.


We found draw-liner paper from when I lined the draws recently of a cupboard I recycled. You peel off the transparent paper to reveal the sticky side.


Kitty stuck the dried flowers and leaves onto the sticky paper.


And then cut around the edges of the flowers.


With a hole punch, we punched a hole for a ribbon loop to hang our pretty ornaments onto the Christmas tree.


Pretty, colorful, ornaments from Mother Nature herself.

Merry Blessings and magic,
Donni

Images from Africa.

Heritage Roses from the garden.

Races on the lawn.


Kitty's beloved goats.


Beautiful Jacaranda and Bougainvillea .


A herd of goats on the main street of town.


Drawing with Granny

Laundry drying in the African sun.


Bedford Town.


Granny collecting groceries in a wheelbarrow.


Washing hanging from the windows.


Kitty and her duckling.


Waiting in line to pay Grampa's electricity.


Teddy riding Zara.


Barbed wire.


Eating peaches from the tree with cousin, Fin.

Beautiful rain to end a three year drought.


The town hair salon.


Puddles.


A tree in the wall.

Kitty swinging.