Ithaca Waldorf Handwork & more

I entered a contest

2012-01-20T14:50:00.004-05:00

I entered a contest with one of my images and would love it if you would go check it out and vote for me thru your Facebook or Twitter (you don't have to be "friends" with me to vote):

www.talenthouse.com

Its for the song:

Florence and The Machine - Only If For A Night

You can see all the entries here:

All Applicants:

My Music Recommendations

2011-11-10T10:06:00.004-05:00

I love Lisa Hannigan and she has a new album out:

This is Evan McHugh and I am just discovering him. You can sign up for a free album here if you want. http://noisetrade.com/evanmchugh highly recomend it.

Snow Patrol is about to release their 6th album 'Fallen Empires' in the UK and I think the release date for America is in January. It's a wonderful album and you can hear some of it here.

Marigolds

2011-11-01T13:32:00.007-04:00

So, I picked the last of my marigolds today - the weather is just right for this time of year and I almost think its still October with its bright blue sky, crisp mornings & sunny days. The birds are scurrying around the bird feeders and the squirrels are burying nuts in the garden soil (which I will have to dig out later in the spring when they don't find them all). I might have to go around and see if I can pick the last of the goldenrod today - it was a very bad year for this flower, wonder if it had anything to do with all the wet weather we had in early Fall? Most of the leaves are down and I can just feel everything starting to shut down for the winter. I will be happy with my spinning wheel and wool that I got at the festival and will hunker down myself.

Wonderful Sheep

2011-10-31T08:47:00.007-04:00

Great animals and you can tell the owners really care for them. Such beautiful animals that give us wool so generously.

Rhinebeck Wool Festival 2011

2011-10-21T07:54:00.012-04:00

As my pots of wool sit and simmer in alum/CoT I would love to show you more of the images I took at Rhinebeck.

This woman & her colors in particular has caught my eye for years now but I only just looked her up. She hails from Maine and uses sea water & the sun for dyeing and the colors are spectacular - www.getwool.com - I would love to dye with sea water but the only natural water I have access to is stream and lake water, which I will never take for granted.

There were many natural dyers at the festival and I was thrilled to see all of them. I replenished my stock of Osage Orange and Alkanet & white wool. The white wool would seem boring to some but I can see its potential and I cant wait to get started.

On Saturday it was a madhouse - Filenes Basement Sale (which I have been to in Boston long ago) has nothing on women who love wool. As I saw civilized women being gracious but also have the wild look in their eyes and had to giggle. I knew from experience to just look on Saturday and I dare not even bring my camera out. I did snatch up a few goodies but I saved most of my buying and close browsing for Sunday. The weather held out for the most part - with a wild shower that lasted only 20 minutes on Sunday that had people running for the tents. Luckily I was already in one and stayed dry the whole time. It was cool enough to ware all our hand made wool sweaters and wraps and we all complimented ourselves with smiles and quick hellos. I always have grand ideas of selling there but I never have the quantities needed to handle that much traffic. Some day I might take the chance?

Rhinebeck Wool Festival - is there any other?

2011-10-18T18:33:00.012-04:00

I think not! Wool in all its glory and colors that are heaven.

I took my two boys on a wild ride in the camper and saw the festival for two days. It was delightful and the boys had their fun too. Wool by day fires by night (and a little arcade games) thats what memories are made from. The textures and colors were in full glory this year. There were new ideas and wonderful people that were not afraid of sharing.

more later...

Wool Roving

2011-10-11T10:20:00.006-04:00

Just put up a bunch of new rovings and yarn on my etsy site. Its never too early to knit for the holidays :)

and more to come...(click here)

Apple Of My Eye

2011-10-06T12:29:00.008-04:00

An Apple is a wondrous fruit.

Sweet, kids consider it a desert.

comes in its own stunning packaging

& most times you can pick it roadside for free.

I hope you can enjoy an apple pie too.

Natural Dye Day 2011

2011-07-06T11:05:00.014-04:00

Dye Day 2011

What a wonderful day this was - color, beautiful weather, good friends.

Cochineal and Indigo

These are great bamboo socks from Dharma Trading Company - they soak up the color beautifully.

Henna (yellow) and Indigo. tied with rubber bands like a tie dye.

Henna and Cochineal pink :)

Eye candy

This was my stuff after everybody left. I can never seem to get to my stuff while everybody is there. I had a lot of things already dyed and these were waiting for the second layer. I got beautiful purples and greens.

The Day Before

2011-06-24T19:01:00.007-04:00

Ok so I have my final list of pot colors for tomorrow.

* Indigo - blue , 2 - because the freeze dried Indigo oxidizes too quickly so I will switch off pots as one re-deoxidizes.

* Alkanet - blue/purple - if I mixed it properly, we will see tomorrow. I am currently soaking the roots in rubbing alcohol and will boil up first thing tomorrow with a full pot of water. Its my first time doing this one so I am excited

* Henna - yellow

* Flower heads - yellow , lots of different flower heads ( Marigold, black eyes susan's, some mystery yellow flower head that looks like queen anns lace, and then I have "booster" yellows. Small jars of color that I will pour into the pot as the day goes on.

1 small pot of yellow onion skins and 1 small pot of calendula

* Madder - orange red, a very strong pot that I use the coffee grinder to chop up small roots that I purchased last year. Sadly my patch of madder I started last year did not come up this Spring.

* Cochineal - red/pink, I might add madder to this and some soda too to make it a deeper red.

They will get a variety of greens and purples when they overdye with two colors.

I have my tent all ready to go up and I will have out my spinning wheel & of corse all my dye books. Unfortunately I think I will be the most excited one there tomorrow so I might look like a freak but that is ok with me. I love color.

Plant Dyeing Day

2011-06-23T12:09:00.006-04:00

Cooking up new dye for my Natural Plant Dyeing Day this Saturday. This is Madder on the left and te now highly covetted Brazilwood. I have to admit this pot is for me only. The last of the real Brazilwood that I have - it is now on the endangered list - but you can get a version of this tree's bark that is not endangered, so that is good. I will have to get some to compare. I have a bag of Alkanet in my hands ready for the pot and I have two yellows planned - Henna and yellow flowers, mostly marigolds. Cutch - which I just found out is the same thing as Wattle (go figure) & indigo I will save till Saturday morning to mix up - its the freeze dried crystals and they just make it too easy now a days (gosh I sound old when I say that!) Might mix up one or two more. More pictures coming.

Cookies

2011-05-12T12:28:00.000-04:00

Welsh Cookies, Grandmother on my Fathers side - her recipe.

They are a delightful biscuit/cookie that I grew up with. They were always round and came out of a clear plastic sleeve with a green twist tie, and were always made by church ladies. One of those elusive cookies that you never found in the grocery store, but had to wait for a fundraiser or fair. I have had my Grandmother's recipe since she died, but never made them in fear that they just wouldn't be good enough. Well, I dusted off the recipe, took out Frammy's rolling pin, and sighed a big sigh. Imagine that, it was easy. I needed to make them first with no shortcuts or substitutions - just for posterity mind you. Mixing by hand, currents (not raisins) and using an iron skillet were very important.

As you can see my skillet isnt as even-cooking as I would like. You want them to look like the pale side of these cookies. I had also used canola oil in the pan to fry them up. Cooked them all and they were deeeeelish! I then proceeded to cook up a batch that is a bit more "less butter and oil" which in fact makes it taste better. Here is the receipt for you.

Frammy's Welsh Cookies

4 Cups Flour

1 Cup Sugar

1.5 tsp Baking Powder

.5 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp coarse salt

2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg

14 TBS of butter (could even go with 13?)

1 scant cup of dried currents

2 eggs

6 TBS Milk

Sift the dry ingredients and then cut in the butter. Add the currents. Beat the eggs and milk together and then add that to mix. Mixing well but don't blend the butter.

Roll out to 1/4" thick - cut with cookie cutter - place these on a plate and stick them in the refrigerator until you get the skillet ready (to harden up the butter again).

I'm sure the iron skillet works well for most but since I have an uneven pan I decided to use my electric rectangle nonstick pan set at 310 degrees and cooked each side about 4 minutes. Oh what heaven, it only 2 rounds of cooking with that big of a pan and it was much more even. You might have to play around with your settings. Slow cooking is the key and you don't want them to burn, they puff like pancakes when you flip them over. No oil on the frying pan needed.

Cheers to all the "church ladies" bakers - Enjoy!

May Day Celebration

2011-05-06T08:52:00.013-04:00

Art Imitating Life Imitating Art

Where as I celebrated May Day with my family in a round about way last weekend - hard work of stacking firewood and then a pit fire with smoors late into the evening - there will also be a typical May Day at the Ithaca Waldorf School this Saturday.

I was there last year and here are some views.

We did a cute scavenger hunt for the children. I painted egg cartons different colors and sent them off into the wood to find an item that color. Coming out of a drab winter It was amazing the small little stems and rocks and leaves that had all the colors of the rainbow. I think it amazed them too. Weaving the May pole is such an earth awaking and invigorating community affair. I do beleive it lives well within the children and gives them a firm base to carry throughout thier lives. A steady rhythm, comfort, they can always count on. Ritual - its a welcoming feeling, but many of todays rituals are lost (so that we are Politically correct with every religion and belive) so I hope that you can find a way with your family and community to find a safe and happy May Day.

Spinning A Tale

2011-04-20T15:36:00.011-04:00

The Magic Onions asked me to write a bit about something I enjoy and the first thing I thought of was spinning :) Thank you for featuring me in your blog's Discovering Waldorf Series.

Cheers.

Spinning a Tale

When you think of spinning what do you think of? An activity done long ago? Your Grandmother? That beautiful friend that lives down the road? Children?

You should think children, the benefits of spinning with children are very rewarding. When I teach handwork I try to bring the children something artistic but also that which serves a purpose, not something that is pretty for pretty sake. Spinning is one of those activities that brings them a step closer to examining cloth and how clothing can be made. The age of 8 is a great time to introduce one to spinning with a tool ( yarn twisties are a wonderful thing to start them off with in the preschool and earlier year). I like to work with teachers/parents and correspond a house building block with spinning. Working with wool can enhance the practical and functional art form as well as appreciation for colors and beauty.

Win - Win!

Letting the children take loose wool and twist it in their fingers, seeing how thread can form, is a real eye opener for some. Spinning wool with a rock is one of the oldest tool used by nomadic tribes thousands of years ago and can be practiced today by you.

Spinning, (yes the act of swinging and spinning as not to be too dizzy to be dangerous) in general is wonderful for children. The action of spinning, calms the nerves, quiets the mind, settles the child, so that they are able to concentrate better. We are made of spirals (DNA) you can witness the golden spiral in math (the Fibonacci spiral) in nature (sunflowers to nautilus shells) to the cosmos, we experience spiral/spinning all the time. Its natural, its beautiful, its healing. You can check out more by clicking here.

Try spinning with your children - it's a great outdoor activity as well as indoors and it doesn't require batteries.

Choose a palm sized rock with nice weight. Purchase some wool roving.

Using your fingers, pull the roving till its thin (don't hold your fingers too close together - let the wool slide between your fingers ) and then twist it in your fingers till you produce a yarn. Make enough yarn to wrap around your rock twice both ways. Knot it. Slip in a smooth stick a inch larger than the rock on both sides. Twist a bit more in your fingers to wrap a bit under the stick but above the rock.

Create a half hitch loop and slide it over the stick. You now can start holding the roving an inch or two above the stick and spin the rock clockwise. Pull the roving a bit at a time making sure to not let the twist of the yarn extend beyond your right hand fingers.

The weight of your rock will determine the thickness of yarn you can spin. A heavy rock will produce thick yarn and a lighter rock will gift you with thinner yarn. With everything, practice makes perfect. Choose a roving that is not "merino wool top" to begin with - this particular roving is very smooth and might prove too slippery for the beginner. Cooperworth or Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) roving is delightful to start with. Check out etsy.com for wonderful selections.

Final projects for Handwork

2011-04-19T09:58:00.007-04:00

This is the view that greats you when you walk into the main handwork building...sigh

Finishing up the Fiber Crafts Handwork Program this year was a bitter sweet week. I have had so many encouraging and nurturing experiences while attending throughout the 4 years. The strengthening of my confidence to lead a classroom is such a wonderful gift that these teachers have passed on. They taught me so much, Thank you.

My final project was to be "hats" but it turned into so much more. I knew that I wanted to spin all my yarns and dye them, so, that is how I started the project 3 years ago. Spinning lots of yarn and dyeing it a rainbow of colors. I kept careful notes and also colorful informative cards of my dyeing process. Once I decided upon hats I also wanted to bring more so I came up with the idea of doing a hat in every form of handwork that we were taught - Knitting, Textured/patterned knitting, Crochet, Wet felting, Hand Sewing, Machine sewing. I brought an example of all the yarns I spun and also got into all the different types of fiber that was spun, different sheep wools, alpaca, yak, angora, silk, bamboo. I discovered that I enjoy spinning much more than knitting (but I like both).

Bookbinding

We finished up the book binder (with interchangeable pads of paper) with the papers that we marbled.

We had a talented visiting artist show us her puppets, these needle felted heads are just unbelievable.

We each made a puppet from the Indian Cinderella story. Using all gloriously plant dyed silks.

Deb's final project work. Knit backpack, knit white boots, beautiful wet felted boots with flipflop souls, mittens and such. Stunning projects, just wish she was able to come herself.

Madeline's project was deeply involved. She bought a few sheep fleeces - washed then carded them did plant dye research and dyed lots of fleece and the spun the wool and knit two sweaters. Spectacular project to see and it took her several years - start to finish. Lots of commitment.

Rachel's project was ambitious - she had never knit a full sweater. It was from this luscious alpaca yarn. She had visited the farm and picked it out and even knew which animal the wool came from.

Narsingh's project was delightful. A story telling apron of Jack and the Beanstalk. She had also gone through many changes of what she wanted to present and had many projects that she did but did not like.

Hurrah girls - we did it!

Grade 4/5

2011-04-18T08:54:00.009-04:00

I was the substitute teacher last week for a few days and it was great to see the children again. There was flute playing, greek myths, math, handwork and I dyed eggs with them. I have taught this class in some capacity for 4 years now and I really hold them dear.

Morning flute song

Main lesson with Greek Myths

Needle point in handwork

During recess some of them practiced ensemble and it was beautiful.

Hand Spun Yarn On Etsy

2011-04-13T14:45:00.001-04:00

I have a few of my hand spun yarns up on my etsy. More to come tomorrow...

Onion Skin Egg Dyeing - Tutorial

2011-04-08T17:18:00.008-04:00

Onion Skin Dye

I have one pot of yellow onion skins and the photo below is the pot of red/purple onion skins. Now... you can get a multitude of colors from both skins ( I recommend keeping them in separate pots) depending on temp and variety of onion and if you use Alum or Ammonia/vinegar before or after. Its just one of the most wonderful dyes there is and you do not have to pre-mordant to keep the color light safe. I have been told that you can get some green dye with the purple skins but I have yet to see it myself (I have seen others) the yellow skins give a rich lushes yellow/orange.

1. Wet the skins for a minute or two then place a few skins in your palm.

2. Place greens - small leafs, tips of ferns, blades of grass.

3. Place a raw egg on those greens

4. Place more greens on the others side of the egg (facing you)

5. Fold up from the sides the rest of the onion skins (also may need to place more wet skins if you do not have enough) on top

6. Wrap the whole package with string or rubber bands.

The tighter you wrap the more detail the resist of the "greens" will ghost onto the egg. I say ghost because some places you will get sharp detail but mostly it will look blurred.

Like I said, I recommend keeping two pots for the different colored skins (by the way, white onion skins do not release any color). Here we can see the yellow onion skins on the left and the darker red skins on the right (these have already been boiled).

Place them in the cool to warm pot of water (do not place cold eggs in hot to boiling water as they will crack) Place as many extra skins in the pot that you have - handfuls are good. I collect skins all year long for this event. Bring to a boil - which might take some time as there is a lot of stuff in the pot) then boil the eggs for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat. Now comes the hard part... wait...at least a half an hour or a few is better. Take out the eggs and unwrap.

The darker eggs are from the red onion skins. Here is a detail of a fern on the egg being unwrapped. It was a good placement and wrapped snugly.

I did this pot of dye with grade 4/5 today and then I just couldn't throw away the pot of color so I took it home and you can see the eggs on the right are done with fresh skins and the ones on the left are the "second" time around. Still delightful and full of color but the darker ones have a larger range of reds/orange/yellow.

Enjoy, I highly recommend it. Learn from me and ware gloves (I currently have yellow fingers)

The photo at the very top is yellow skins on velour, red skins on velour & silk done with yellow skins. Rich!

Goal accomplished

2011-04-05T09:11:00.013-04:00

4 years of Handwork training is now finished. It was a glorious training and a retreat all rolled into one. I made some incredible friendships along the way and I know my soul was nourished. I started this training with no job, got a job as a handwork teacher and now have ended it with no job again. I was not fitting into the schedule of the Ithaca Waldorf School so now I am in search of what to do next. There is a wonderful network of homeschooler and thoughts of summer camps whirl in my brain. I know that I will hold a dyers workshop - just have to settle on the date. Here are some shots as labeled. Please ask any questions you might have - I will try to help if I can.

Marbling paper

Hold your breath and don't stop your movements or you get flaws with the transfer of paint onto the paper.

Low, slow but steady

Beautiful plant dyed yarns in the studio

Rinata wearing one of her beautiful creations of hand spun yarn that was plant dyed.

Another Tree Tumbles

2011-04-05T08:25:00.010-04:00

64 years old and the last few years developed a fungus - thats what killed it several years ago. Now for us it will be wonderful ash fireplace logs. We hate to take trees down but this one was ready to be useful. The top half was rotted away so I am glad hubbie took it down now. We have a Pileated Woodpecker that comes around every Feb for the spring/summer and he has plenty of other stumps to peck-a-upon.

Taken quickly thru the dirty window, they are fast and hate to be seen.

Happy Spring

2011-04-03T11:35:00.006-04:00

Boys are hiding Easter eggs in the living room - just like Cynthia and I use to do when we were young.

Beautiful color to bring us out of the cold into the warmth of the sun.

Trees are turning out loads of sap this year. We have tapped our third tree and we might still only get a large mason jar out of it. Its amazing how much you have to boil down to get syrup. We should be able to get sap for the next few days, but it's getting late already.

I wish you could taste it.

I spent my winter spinning quite a bit of yarn - mostly from a mix of wool and yak. Wonderful blend of fibers and wicked soft. It's expensive but really worth the price. This is my first sweater and it's turning out nice. I have to look up how to do the sleeves & neck as I fear I can not wing that part. I have been intrigued by this magazine Wild Fibers since I have become a spinner and I highly recommend it if you are too. Exotic fibers don't have to be a stranger to your basket of fibers. Camel is next on my list to spin.

I usually go bonkers over dyed fibers - usually from plant material but this time I decided to stick with the wonderful gray color. The Ithaca Farmers Market opened up for the first weekend this year and I bought some dried calendual flowers so I might start off my dye pots this spring with that - should make a wonderful warm yellow?

Making Knitting Needles

2010-11-20T13:37:00.006-05:00

I would love to introduce to a wonderful way to make a gift for someone who knits.

Knitting Needles

Contact this company and check out all the wonderful woods he has for purchase. The company is called Dowelsondemand = web site - (click here) He does not ship the quickest but always comes through if you are in a pinch. I am also not sure how small an order he will take, I use to order 40 dowels at a time but you can always check.

I have uses Bloodwood (red) , Bacote, Zebrawood, Black walnut. You want a harder wood rather than a soft wood (like Osage Orange) because it will bend and warp less. He lists only to 1/4" diameter but will shave it down to 3/16" if you email him and ask.

Once you have the dowels you also need :

sandpaper

beeswax (I used moulding beeswax)

soft cloth

glue

beads - a mixture of wood and metal make it fancy

(with holes the same width as the diameter of the dowel)

Step 1:

sandpaper the tip to a blunt point

Make sure you rotate the stick as you sand. Angle the dowel almost parallel to the table as you sand so that you get about 3/8ths to 1/2 inches sanded. Put pressure on the tip as you sand away the wood. Use grit 120 to start & then switch to 220. Then use a fine grain of 400 grit sandpaper lightly to sand the entire dowel. Wipe off the dowel with a soft cloth to get rid of all the sawdust.

Step two:

The apply the warm (by holding it in your hand to soften it a bit) beeswax up and down the dowel. Not too much as you then buff it off again with the soft cloth. Re-sand if your cloth catches on any parts, re-wax & buff.

When all the wax is buffed off with the soft cloth

Step Three:

Glue on the end beads. Make sure you have a glue that will handle what ever type of bead you have - dont expect wood glue to glue on a glass bead and keep. I used a all-purpose permanent adhesive, even though the fumes are horrible when wet. Make sure to crack a window if you use something like that.

There you have it. I teach 6 year olds to do this and they accomplish it quite well and then fell like they have made a beautiful gift worthy gift.

Needle Felted Santa and others

2010-11-20T13:30:00.004-05:00

He is waiting for a new home..is it yours? Go here to check him out.

This pair gets into mischief - do you think you can handle them? Go here to see...

Check out my whole store and see if there is anything else you like.

Knitting sock

2010-11-08T16:56:00.001-05:00

Knitting and winding wool - one of many projects I have going...

Green Hat

2010-10-29T14:41:00.004-04:00

It was a beautiful day while I knitted but not there is hail the size of peas pelting my window.

The dog kept me company. :)

Germany & Hats

2010-10-27T11:35:00.009-04:00

Well, I actually did go to Germany - how weird is that...however not there (below post)

It happened fast and it was all because of free airline tickets. :)

It was beautiful.

I am excited to be working with one of my classmates on a plant dyeing workshop/course/study over the next few months.

I am currently working on my final project for handwork. I am making hats from yarn I have dyed and spun. I am in need of research to go along with my paper. Anybody have a good article on design or color theory or hats in particular from Steiner that you want to share?

Here are some of my yarns I have spun up. Some have been dyed with plant material and some are natural. I have a bunch more and I am incorporating different materials and "how they spin" as well. There are many more colors and cant wait to spin more. This late autumn weather today bodes well with a cup of coffee and knitting on the front porch...so off I go.

Steiner working on his sculpture

2010-04-25T12:45:00.005-04:00

Towering figure Rudolf Steiner at work on a sculpture in 1919. Gertrud von Heydebrand-Osthoff, © Staatsarchiv Basel-Stadt.

This is an article from The New York Times

We studied this sculpture “Representative of Man” this past Feb. with Michael Howard. This is exciting - anybody want to go to Germany with me?...to bad I'm not really going, but I wish I was :)

Grades update

2010-04-25T10:51:00.005-04:00

Socks are getting finished. I do have to catch a few up, some of them are home schooled as well as attending our school 3 days a week. Its always hard with that combination. I will have some knitting to do to help them finish but all in all they are progressing well. I have some big talkers in this class and I think my leniency with them has not benefited the class so I am slowly reigning them in to a quiet class. Sometimes it works other days are a challenge. I am in need of a verse for this grade - any suggestions out there?

Here is the sign that we put up at the beginning of the school year, love how it turned out.

Grade 1 is really doing well, concentration is really good. I do have to quiet them down a bit, and we tried a "sit where ever you want" day but that deaerated quickly so I wont try that again with this group till next year.

Second grade is excelling with their work. We have a small class but many choleric. Some days can be so smooth and others are a fight from the start. Silence works better and have switched to a silent class about two months ago. This class is able to "sit wherever" and work well so I do that often as a reward.

Black Board Drawings

2010-04-01T16:32:00.004-04:00

I though I would share a few black board drawings that our very talented main lesson teachers produce.

Socks and Pot holders

2010-03-23T16:21:00.009-04:00

They are finishing up their sock and they really look great. A few are onto mittens/fingerless gloves. Speaking of Dragons - here is what the class produced for St. Martin's Day this past fall.

This is grade 2 crotching pot holders. Very disconcerting to chop off the heads of the children but I want to be respectful of privacy. I won't go into my photography training and what that all can mean, but I don't like doing it.

Dragon Day 2010

2010-03-23T16:14:00.007-04:00

Dragon Day again this past Friday. It's were the freshman architecture class builds a dragon and parades it around the school (Cornell University) and then it goes up inflames. However this was the first year in I don't know how many, 20/30 years they didn't burn it. It was a beautiful Dragon - gold and silver and it pivoted in the middle and the mouth open and closed. Very nice!

The wonderful clock tower.

Architect building on the arts quad.

At one point they had to back it up and plow thru the tree limbs.

New items in my etsy store

2010-03-17T17:02:00.002-04:00

I also have put several new items up on my Etsy page - if you are in need of wool locks, knitted animals (horse and lamb to come soon), Plant dyed yarns & silk check it out. Thanks :)

More - Fiber Craft Studios

2010-03-17T16:32:00.003-04:00

I want to be clever like my friend at Teaching Handworks and make a video with all my pictures from The Fiber Craft Studios but it will have to wait for the weekend when I have a bit more time. For now, I have some clay work photographs from the fabulous teacher Michael Howard - you can order his book here - Michael Howard's book Educating the Will - it was a hard read for me but once inside the classroom we had some really great conversation to make the concepts easier to understand. On to the pictures...

Being at Sunbridge is such a nurturing place and anybody thinking of taking a Handwork/Applied Arts program should really consider The Fiber Craft Studio seriously. It a wonderful place.

Fiber Craft Studios Applied Arts February 2010 at Sunbridge

2010-03-16T14:08:00.013-04:00

Sewing the Elephant from individual drawings we each did.

This was a real struggle because all I wanted to do was copy from a book. We had to draw it from how we felt an animal would walk about - something in motion.

Here is my drawings (with others) - then we took that "live" drawing and did a sideways drawing to make the pattern from.

Cutting out the patterns proves difficult for people that generally get things backwards and upside down on a regular basis.

I did end up with a lovely elephant.

Making the underbelly and head gusset takes finesse and extra cutting, plus a confidence with your ladder stitch will help you make it look like you want. My elephant still isn't finished - I have to add his ears and tail on. I'll post him when I'm done. He is up in the top picture - second from the left.

Spring Time Awakening

2010-03-15T19:27:00.003-04:00

So, I have been egged on by two dear friend (who don't know each other) to continue my blog. I am deciding to do so happily & I hope there are more than two of you out there. Either way, two or more, I am happy to post what I do and share in the joy of handwork. I am currently going through my stash of wool, hand spun yarn, dyed fibers and needle felted goodies. I hope to have several things on my Etsy page soon (only got silk squares up today - more tomorrow). I will also post about my lasted training at Fiber Craft Studios (Sunbridge). Music has payed a large part in my life lately (no, unfortunately I have not picked up my guitar in 25 years, just listening to new music and seeing it live) so you might get a suggestion thrown at you from time to time. I am in my second year of teaching Handwork at the Ithaca Waldorf School and I love the school and the children. I hope of have their hands in here too. I designed the logo for the school and the new sign looks great (hummm no photo, I'll have to snap one tomorrow).

Have a great night all & I hope to see you here again soon.

More of Sunbridge and the Fiber Craft Studios

2009-08-31T09:15:00.010-04:00

Here are some more lovely shots form Sunbridge/ Fiber Craft Studios.

Plant dyed hand knit socks

2009-07-23T14:53:00.013-04:00

Here is the latest and the greatest from my last teacher training

**coughretreatcough**

Its wonderful to spend time with people that share the same intrest and that are really really funny!! This is what we did in one of the classes for the first week. More to come.

Here's to a hearty laugh.

Dye Garden

Cochineal with Madder to get that deep red.

Indigo

Look what we dyed!!

Look at the selection we get to choose from as well as what we dyed.

Knitting...

Most of us finished the first week and some of us (me) we were the proud owners of our first pair of socks from scratch. I'm the brown ones in the middle. Oh happy day.

2009-07-20T10:10:00.003-04:00

Ok, I'm back - sorry to have taken such a long break. I have something really funny for you...

Sheep!

have a look and tell me what you think. I'll be back to tell you all about my teaching training later this week (with photos!)

No camera - Boo Hoo

2009-05-28T16:17:00.003-04:00

Hello, I'm sorry to say that my camera broke a few days ago and I feel like I am such a visual person - my words never do any justice.

I have been keeping myself busy with the end of school - lots of end of year reports, final projects wrap up for the kids, and then there is the cleaning...

I am planning a yard sale in two weeks the attic has lots of space but my living room is atrocious, I will use the money for my summer stint at Sunbridge College - Fiber Craft Studios for the end of June. Its such a wonderful place to be.

Tonight is the Ithaca Parade. Now this is not your ordinary parade mind you. There are stilt walkers, pie throwers, walking musicians, Belly dancers, Volvo's in tutus, and a chainsaw serenade at the end plus more. Its usually an hour + long parade with way too much candy for the kids and its a sight to behold.

Lets hope the weather hold off...

"No rain, No rain, No rain"

Neil can chant so can you!

I hope to have my camera back in my hands at the end of two weeks - can I make it??

Madder - plant dye

2009-05-13T13:51:00.006-04:00

Well as you can see I have finally dyed with Madder. I have always used the root (unground) but have now used ground madder and wow what a difference. You get the color so quickly. With the root you have to soak and simmer for days to get color like this. (Or maybe it was me doing something wrong) But Wow I love this color.

The wool roving balls - the orange/red colored ones were straight out of the pot (all have been fixed with Alum and cream of tartar). The roving (and one silk scarf) that has more of a pink tone was dipped in an ammonia bath after dyeing. The skeins of yarn were dipped twice and a slight ammonia after bath. Amazing the color difference from just one pot. The color get weaker with every dipping. I have a skein still in the pot and will take it out after a few days. Heat is also important - it was a bit more than hand hot but not near boiling. I do believe that boiling results in a rusty orange at best.

Great Weekend

2009-05-11T08:14:00.008-04:00

I had a very nice Mothers Day - did you?

Happy Mothers Day to my Mom!

I had waffles, went to church and then off to the Farmers market for more food! It was great. The Farmers market is in full swing - if you are ever in town it is definitely something for your "to do" list. However I would avoid it on Memorial day weekend - all the Cornell University parents are there because its graduation weekend and it is so full you can't move around! So we will skip next week and go the following week for our noodle bowl fix.

On Saturday, I went to the Friends of the Library sale and got some great books.

I also went to my spinners guild meeting. We chatted and then made buttons out of fimo/sculpty clay. I highly recommend it! You get the colors you need for your custom blended fibers and its really addictive! Mine are the greens ones (what a surprise!) - bottom left.

My boys went fishing on Saturday and brought home some lovely fish for our pond. They eat the mosquitos and its fun to "find" them through out the summer.

Snapping turtle

2009-05-08T17:49:00.004-04:00

We saw this beauty ( snapping turtle) crossing the road the other day and had to stop for a photo. Its not the biggest we have ever seen but he was a good size anyway. He was meandering to the nearby pond. Nice to see such a cool looking dino.

Here are all our teachers walking the land that will soon be our schools location. We have acres and now we just need to build. Ha - "just". There is so much ahead of us it exciting.

Here are the bees. The hive was living in the neighboring house and decided to move out one afternoon and one of our loving students found the hive. Magical and wonderful how it all works out sometimes.

We have a program that comes to the school every friday thats called Earth Arts. It teached the children all about nature and how to care for it and how to use it carefully and then in turn, how nature takes care and nurtures them. We had a lovely slide show at our teacher meeting and she told wonderful stories of the children.

I held my 1st grade class outside today. I remember wanting to do that when I was little - ("why can't they just take us out side" I use to think) so now that I am a teacher I do it as much as I can.

The Ithaca Friends of the library sale it tomorrow morning - I can't wait. I think I might do some yard sales too.

Coldplay puppet show!

2009-05-06T14:16:00.003-04:00

I can't get enough of this video so funny - just watch and enjoy!

2009-05-03T13:28:00.008-04:00

Happy May Day

(removed photos - sorry)

The weather was perfect and all the children (and adults) has so much fun at our little festival. There were games, food and music. This was my third year attending and by far the most organized. Thanks to the Parent Concil - Much thanks.

Several kids and adults had on beautiful flower crowns. I would love to share but didn't get permission for close-ups but here is my husband and I.

I am in the process of firing up my indigo pot again. Its from instant crystals (1 TBS) lasts forever!! I have used the pot twice - with added deoxidizer. I love the teals I am getting with the softer yellows.

Plant dyeing

2009-04-29T09:42:00.007-04:00

Well, the color that I was graced with by the Willow tree leaf is wonderful!

I love the fact that you can acquire a great yellow (all shades) from things growing in your backyard or side street. For this I just trimmed a few low branches from a huge Willow tree and clip them with scissors and simmered them up. When the plant matter sinks to the bottom of the pot (usually a few hours) you know that the dye stuff is ready to strain. I usually never have the patience to strain and I end up regretting it because I spend more time picking the particles off the wool - and that takes more time than straining. So learn from my mistakes!

The other color is from a weak bath of Black walnuts that have been sitting in a pot outside all winter. I did strain this one because the nut hulls just disintegrated when I heated this one up. I think it will make a lovely color for faces for my needle felted santas.

Here is a pot of Dandelion flowers that are just starting to sprinkle the lawns of the east. I can see already (soaking overnight) that it will also be a strong yellow. It's such a picture perfect pot with the blossoms floating.

For an end of year projects for my kids I hope to wash up a fleece that was just donated and dye with them. It will take a bit on my part to get it organized for a 40 minute class but maybe I will make a day of it and stay through recess.

Box - o - Wool

2009-04-27T16:16:00.007-04:00

I have taken a leap of faith in myself and purchased a BOX load of white wool/alpaca roving.

It was a mess in the box and took days to straighten it all into balls. They called it mill ends - I call it heaven, my husband calls it fuzzy. There was wool floating around the house for days - but then again when isn't there! I hope to spin it, dye it with plant dyes, & then sell it.

Where you ask?

Me too. I think I'll put some of it up on my etsy page, there are so many good spinners there so... I also hope to do some craft shows this fall. It will take this long to spin it all.

What color do you like to knit in??

I have done this much so far... Not much of a dent but I'm truck'n along.

I also had all wool roving in the box. You end up with an unrequested, all white, types of roving. I was really pleased with what I got.

I have soaked these rovings in alum (there is more in the pot) and are now drying in the sun/wind. I hope to collect dandlions and willow leafs for a nice yellow to start off my greens for this year. I'll try to put up a play by play as I go along.

The Planets bend between us

2009-04-23T10:49:00.004-04:00

I'm still adding to this - Lots more to go. I usually don't show my art work in progress but hey - I figure only my friends are reading this anyway!

I took out the real unusable wrinkles and straightened the ocean line. Took out the dark figure and put in a tree. Added lots of little touches that I'm sure you cant tell in this photo. The top photo was wet felted and then the add ons were from a felting needle.

I like the colors - its the beach at winter - I'm still pondering...

...and from the edge of Ireland shout out loud...

Lots of fun on vacation

2009-04-16T16:56:00.006-04:00

We had a lovely vacation

- after the annual Easter egg hunt -

we went to the Crystal Caves in PA.

The boys have been into the crystal miners from lego and they were thrilled to be in a real crystal mine cave. Very cute. Well, after mining for gold (purchased bags from the store and then you "pan" for your goodies) we went back to the hotel, that in itself was a treat.

The next day we took them to Cabela's (can you hear the outdoors man gods singing?? - Ahhhhh).

Then up to Pottsville to the Yuengling brewery. Lets just say this end of the vacation was for my husband. I tried to swing in a trip to the wool mill, but alas, there wasn't enough time - later I'm sure.

I am working on a felted piece using lyrics to a song - I have wet felted it and after it dries I will be adding more to it. More like a wool picture - I have done a few of these but not in this fashion, so we will see how it turns out.

Locks of Love

2009-04-11T10:32:00.013-04:00

I have always wanted to do this but have not been in the right place/time.

I now felt in the right place and it feels great. I hope to get a finished hair look soon.

I highly recomend it if you can too.

Locks of Love.

Final draft of an ongoing change

Featured on Crafty Crow - Thanks

2009-04-10T12:00:00.005-04:00

I was thrilled to have a spot on the Crafty Crow - Thanks!

(I'm at the bottom of the page as of right now)

She is such a great resource for crafts - check it out.

I am currently running around the house packing for a quick trip down south for the Easter weekend. It's amazing all the things I want to take (crafting wise) to "play" with my sisters. We also have a lot of show and tell to do as well. I haven't seen them since the new year started.

Here I am doing a gift for my sisters while I sit in the tire store getting my snow tires off.

It was snowing while they were doing it - how ironic!

The boys are thrilled for the annual Easter egg hunt as well.

Remember a while back I told you Snow Patrol was my favorite band.

Well my sisters and I are going to see then in June!! I can't wait. His passion, in his lyrics, just make me swoon! They are playing with Coldplay - can't get much better than that.

Tutorial - Drawing on eggs

2009-04-03T15:54:00.023-04:00

I love drawing on eggs. I was told how to do this last year (see my older post) but have been told a newer way to add color. You really should try this - even if "I can't draw" tends to stop you in your tracks. Its all about simple blending and then line drawing. Children LOVE this, and to have this round fragile object teaches them to be gentle as well as careful - yes even the rowdy ones!

Start will a raw egg and nail - gently tap the nail to create a hole in the top and bottom of the egg (centered as much a possible but don't worry too much). You can then get a wire to place inside the hole and wiggle it around to break the yolk up so you then can blow into the top hole which blows the wet egg out the bottom hole. Do not wash the inside of the egg - it dries inside and actually makes a stronger egg shell - but doesn't smell (much).

Scrambled eggs for dinner anybody??

Try to make the hole as small as possible.

I use pens made by Bic - but Sharpies work as well (they might even blend better) but I like the color selection of these bic. Just as long as they are permanent ink. Start with a light color - I have chosen a peach for the background of the sunset and gradually chose a darker color - up to red and blended.

You layer the one color (mine is peach) and then add a second color - a small patch at a time these pens dry really quickly - and use your fingertip to blend the color. Experiment with this - the more color you lay down the more you can blend (One quick stroke wont let you blend at all). Then move onto your third and fourth color to create a beautiful sunset color.

Then I used a light green for the grass (all over the bottom of the egg) and then using a darker color green for hill accents. Now this color is drastically darker but you will come in with a medium color and blend all three colors at once. These markers wet the color underneath the one on top and then you can blend them all together. Just try it and you will see.

As you can see I use a different fingertip for each color family I use. Its hard to wash these off but worth it in the end. I do wash my finger tips when all the blending is done because your fingers do get sticky from all the ink.

I chose a dark brown for the trees and added leafs and details as you can see. The brown overtakes what ever background blended color because its darker.

This is the other side of the egg. This other one was done by my 5 year old. Its Daddy in a canoe with a fishing pole/bobber and worm tempting a fish. Ha Ha. - so cute.

To finish off the egg and give it a loop string - Cut a small circle of felt and sew a piece of yarn through it. You can create a loop or not, and send it through the egg and tie it off. The felt piece can be glued on the bottom of the egg or not but it gives the egg a place to rest.

I would love to see anything you guys decorate!

Ithaca Childrens School

2009-04-02T18:10:00.005-04:00

Just something quick today. - I am working on a tutorial - how to paint eggs with markers -

I hope to have that up tomorrow...

This is a display I did for the school at our local organic food co-op store Greenstar. The kids are always so excited to see their work on display.

2009-03-31T17:49:00.007-04:00

Maple syrup & banner

2009-03-30T10:39:00.004-04:00

Well, the sap is done dripping & boiled down and I am enjoying a sinfully wonderful pancake with the pure maple syrup. Very cool - I do like it and I will do more of it next year. We got about 6/7 gallons of sap from one tap on one large tree. It boiled down to a diners syrup jar full and what you see in the photo. Yum!

I finished the Ithaca Children's School banner for a large building down town - it will be 4'x8'. Its to advertise *Now Enrolling*. How do you like it? I'll take a picture of it when its hanging.

Sugar Maple tapping

2009-03-22T16:51:00.009-04:00

Its a really cool day out and we finally got to tapping our one tree. We have lots of sugar maples, but we figure that this is our first time and we want to see if we like doing this first. The boys stuck in their fingers and tasted the sweet water. Yummm.

After coming inside my husband brought me this... how nice.

I have been spinning a lot lately and I got some samples from Roc Day and I spun them up 2ply this week and now I know a bit more about different fibers. How they slip or stick when you draft them.

From the left to the right:

Alpaca/Merino/Silk, Angora/Merino/Silk, Targhee Top (wool), SW Merino/Tencel.

Alpaca seems to dull the colors (compared to Angora) - the last one Tencel - is very slippery but still easy to spin. I really like the look of the all wool one - but I guess that depends on what you do with the yarn. I will have to knit them up and see how they drape/feel.

Done being sick

2009-03-20T08:24:00.009-04:00

I am able to take a deep breath today - my boys are healthy and so am I.

It was a long two weeks of sickness but now we are done and are able to move on into Spring!

The weather lately has been in the low 50's, nice and sunny (January and Feb only had a handful of sunny days). I hope to have my boys down in the stream collecting crayfish for the turtle.

I had not taught this week so the kids are a bit behind with their projects and hopefully we can all buckle down and really crank out some good classroom time this coming week.

Here are some random shots from this winter.

This is the Black Sheep Spinners Guild I belong to, once a month we gather and spin, knit, chat, show&tell, and in the summer we gather at people's houses and do random projects. I joined as a needle felter but now I have my wheel!

Here are my 4th grade handwork bags. They loved working on them (some had a hard time finishing the french seams) but were happy when they were finished.

3rd grade plant dyed wool yarn hat.

1st grade knit mouse (from a square).

This was the window right before winter break for the 2/3rd graders. They made those window stars. Below is their watercolors of Moses in the water as a baby.

Nothing unusual

2009-03-14T18:32:00.004-04:00

Unfortunately I am battling the flu with my son and I have done nothing interesting this week. The weather is breaking around here slowly but we will have temps of 50 degrees for the week upcoming. That will be good - I will be able to air out the house and as my grandmother use to say "go get the stink blown off ya". We got the dead limbs off the very large oak tree outside the computer room window this week - I guess that all that really happened. Hopefully I will have something more for you this week.

Here is a great Playlist of Snow Patrol - my new favorite band.

Cute Knit Lamb or sheep

2009-03-10T10:40:00.005-04:00

I think this pattern is widely know but I thought I would share anyway. I like my animals to have some heft to them so I adjusted the normal pattern to reflect that. Good luck. If you are too busy to knit (or don't know how) I am putting is lamb and several horses up on my

Etsy page

for sale. Just in time for Easter baskets if you like :) .

Sewing & filling the animal is what really takes the time. Remember to roll your wool filling around a pencil (very tightly) for the legs and let it come up and be part of the hip bone too - that will make the animal more stable. Don't forget to give him a nice round plump tummy. If you knit a dark animal - don't forget to fill and shape him with dark colored wool.

Rainbow Pincushion

2009-03-08T10:00:00.007-04:00

Here is a selection of wool from bright to darker around the edges - to create a rainbow ball pincushion.

everybody in class really picked beautiful and eye catching colors for theirs.

Once the ball is wet felted you want to cut it open when it's still wet.

Beautiful & useful

Double color finger knitting

2009-03-07T10:29:00.002-05:00

Here is my first "how to" video. I step over my words every once in a while but I had fun.

Return, to a lot of things

2009-03-04T07:39:00.008-05:00

Well, - that was a long break form the computer. I think I went into deep hibernation and hopefully I will now emerge from the crisp new earth ready to flower again and show you all new things.

I am also back fresh from my training at The Fiber Craft Studio (click here or see below)

http://www.threefold.org/fiber_craft_studio/applied_arts_program.aspx

This is located on the Sunbridge College campus but is now under the umbrella of the

Threefold Educational Center community 260 Hungry Hollow Road Chestnut Ridge, NY 10977.

I highly recommend this program to anybody who is teaching Handworks, aspiring to & also for personal growth. I can't speak enough about how much this program is enriching my life.

Here we are looking at out 4 legged animals that we did using the pattern with a spine (a wakeful project for the 3/4th grader)

Here are 2 puppets we returned with this Spring as homework. She is having quite a cute dialogue with the two of them.

I am also taken with the beauty of the campus and simple things like their doors.

I am giving a small talk tonight at out Parent Study night about Handworks and why we teach different subjects at different grades, it should be fun.

Felted wool rug

2009-01-06T18:33:00.008-05:00

Well, that was a long break.

I wish that I kept up with my blog through the holidays but I just got too busy.

Now I have time to sit back and reflect.

I did make a really cool gift for my sister-in-law in Seattle. I wanted to post it right away but I had to wait till she got it. I felted a rug. It was large (forgot to measure it) enough for her feet at the side of her bed - in fact its probably a bit to large for that. It was the first time felting a rug and I had a lot of fun (so did my boys with the felting process!)

I laid out all the colors on top of a base of white wool batting form West Earl Woolen Mill (717) 859-2241 - they have no web site - so worth the phone call and talking with an actual person!

I do have to say that I didn't lay out the colors correctly - all I did was lay them on top of the white - I should have broken up the color a bit and criss crossed it - instead I just laid a strip of this and that and that's how the rug turned out (a layer of color on white).

Then I rolled it up in a big heavy duty bubble wrap with very hot soapy water & a white sheet

(I got the bubble wrap at Rheinbek wool festival) and rolled it for two days and whacked it around and rolled it around and then I unrolled it to check for movement of the pattern but for the most part t didn't move. I rolled it some more and then after it was felted enough I threw it around the bathtub for a while to shock the wool into felting some more. Love my feet?? Ha.
Then after all that and rinsing it out and stepping all over it - I took it down to the washer machine and put it on spin and spun it dry. Then I hesitated to put it in the dryer but i did it anyway and boy was I glad - after it was in there on low for 15 minutes it was dry, fluffy and ready to mail off to her. I was happy with the process and I can't wait to try it again.

Christmas tree and the Perigee moon

2008-12-13T08:19:00.009-05:00

Were you able to see the moon last night?

We were out getting our Christmas tree yesterday afternoon and it was just a breathtaking day. The snow was falling lightly and we had just gotten a foot of snow. The trees all looked perfect with the blanket of white hanging off the branches low and even. We had to broom off the snow to get a good look at the ones we were choosing. After the easy choice (there were so many good ones) we looked up and saw and heard about 1,000 geese flying over head. - It was spectacular and noisy - there were some Canadian geese (because they were black) but most of them were white. They were snow geese! So many of them, we all were in awe with our heads to the sky. The weather was really moving fast and their wings were taking them on a fast flight. The storm clouds were fast and low and we caught a glimpse of the sun setting as we dragged our chosen tree to the truck.As we were headed home we rounded a bend in the road and were struck with the sight of the Perigee moon.

I made my husband pull over so I could take this shot. From what I hear it was hard to get anything because of the weather and clouds. I feel luck just to have seen it.

Here are some spectacular shots I found around the web. This was taken in Washington state.

This is supposed to be the difference if you placed them side by side (normal moon and a perigee moon).

Snow Day

2008-12-12T08:32:00.009-05:00

I have been around snow all my life and I still can't get over how lovely it is.

Snow days are rare around here even thought we regularly get inches at a time - something to do with the union bus drivers & their other jobs so - when we do its a great thing for the boys. They are already planning a sledding party with the friends down the road. I think we got about 8 inches this time :) - no scratch that its more like 14" I just got in from shoveling. I will be inside decorating and baking cookies no doubt. I was hoping to get the third book in the Twilight series but I guess that will have to wait till tomorrow.

The 1st graders are all finished with their owls but one (she was going to finish today) So we will have to let them fly home on Monday. Most of them will finish the knitting needle case.

Color theory for cross stitching

2008-12-10T08:05:00.008-05:00

I started the cross stitch lesson with my 4/5 grade class yesterday. We talked about blending color and then gave them a blending lesson with chalk on paper. (they loved the mess!) I also talked briefly about pointillism

(sorry its sideways)

and how that pertained to our lesson more than the chalk because we will be working with solid points of color to blend (not in the sense of watercolor blending). The discussion also went back to the early chat about color and how the darker colors hold and give weight to the object and the light ones represent the top or openness of a project. I really like talking with the older kids and hearing there thoughts. The younger classes just sit and listen (which is good too!) or go off on really cute tangents which have nothing to do with my lesson :) .

We also did an exercise with colored dots. Stare at the green dot for a minute or so and then stare at the white page - you should see..

A pale red (pinkish ) dot. That's because its the opposite color on the color wheel. It will be a darker color if you stare longer.

They are choosing their size of the pouch today and starting to prepare the aida cloth. I am now seeing that I will have to bring spray starch to class because the cloth isn't a stiff as I would like it for them. I will be taking more photos today and I will add them when I come home.

Thank you for the award!

2008-12-02T16:02:00.003-05:00

My very good friend gave me this award and I am honored to think I have a blog good enough.

I would pass it back - but that is a bit redundant... your blog is the best though!

I pass this onto -

Harmony Valley Homeschooling - Lisa Anne

My life for the past two weeks

2008-12-02T14:49:00.019-05:00

Wow what a crazy time of year. I have so much to tell you all.

Back in November I had a great show at the Waverly Artisans Market - I sold lots of dyed silks and yarn + a few dolls - all in all it went really well. My mother has the photos and she isn't around for a few more days, so I will post those later.

Then I had my sons birthday party and they all went sledding

and had pizza and cake. The room was all decorated in blue and white. Here is the cake that he requested and designed - decorated with his new blue ice dragon.

After the party we had out schools Elves faire. Here are some examples of the crafts that the kids in school made for the craft table (for sale).

It was a great faire and lots of people showed up that are not affiliated with the school (always good). I actually forgot my camera so i will hope to get some shots from other people soon.

Then....

We went to The Thanksgiving day parade - you got it New York City baby! It was a dream come true - I always watch the parade on TV and this is the first time I saw it in real life. The boys were very excited. We made it to the edge of the park near 63rd street and had some breathing room but still we were 6 people deep so my youngest sat on my husbands shoulders most of the time and my other boy sat on the wall to see the show. It was great!

Kermit is one of my favorites.

I love how all the people are dressed in the color theme of the balloon.

Then there is Santa to close out the show - I loved his swan sled.

We also went around and looked at the city windows - they are so beautiful and detailed.

These dolls moved back and forth and I think my youngest like them the most.

This one was for swarovski crystals.

I like this second tree better :)

We went form the Big apple where the city never sleeps to NJ's swamp lands. Both beautiful in their own rights. I found some mushrooms I am going to use for dye - I'll let you know what color it is when I do it.

I finally got to the pottery studio after a two month break and got to glaze some of my stuff. He I am putting wax on the bottom of the pot so the glaze doesn't get on the bottom.

This is a big pot of glaze - I dip my pot and then put it in the kiln to fire (cone 6). I will post the results when they come out.

I have another show in down town Ithaca this Saturday. I hope to see you there! Whew that's all for now. Thanks to all who put us up this past thanksgiving weekend! Blessings.

Busy but loving it

2008-11-23T09:28:00.003-05:00

Well I just got done a crazy 10 days with 3 days of rest and then I am off running again with Thanksgiving.

I had a wonderful time at my show in Waverly (photos to come later). I sold very well considering the economy. It was great to spend that time with my Mom and Dad too. My son had his 8th birthday and his party this week and we ended the 10 days with the Elves Faire for my school (photos to come). I am going to do nothing today and waist away the hours reading blogs and shopping on Esty.

We have about 8 inches of snow over the last two days and my brain is in Christmas mode. Early this year! I have another holiday show coming up in two weeks down in Ithaca and then Roc Day in January (where I hope to sell lots of plant dyed fiber).

My kids in school are great - I am getting lots of info from my class mates and teacher (thanks!) and I hope to get more grounded in my teaching methods.

My husband is finishing up the downstairs room (MY new Work/Studio room!!!!!) it was a year and half last August when it got flooded from 9" of rain in 5 hours. My husband can fix anything and rebuild very well. It just take a reallllly long time to finish. We have been looking at construction plastic and debris for so long that I really can't believe its so close to being finished. I am really excited to set that up sometime after the holiday activities.

Wow - I feel like I just unloaded so much on you readers. Thanks for reading :)

Off to Etsy!

Santa

2008-11-17T16:30:00.006-05:00

Ok I just put this Brown Santa up for sale in my etsy site if you want to buy him - or pass on the information! Thanks.

I hope to post a new item in the shop every day. I did really well at The artisans craft market this weekend but I still have a lot more to sell.

Waiting till Saturday...

2008-11-11T10:38:00.006-05:00

I have been working like a mad woman for my large artisans craft fair this Saturday. I can't believe that it is so close. Here are some of my new ones. If they don't sell here I will be posting them up for sale in my etsy page.

I think of her as Mrs. Clause with a tray of cookies for Santa. I love her shawl that I spun from a fleece that I purchased last year. Now I have to finish spinning it and make one for myself!

This guy was suppose to be a Santa but turned more into a sheep herder. I will have to make some fluffy sheep to go with him.

Wish me luck - I know people always need Christmas/holiday gifts but my stuff is so frivolous I hope it sells. I always have such fun at this sale. My Mom sells here jewelery there too. I will post photos of her stuff soon. Setting up the booth is great, we prim and fluff till everything is just right. We have a hoot going back and forth from her booth to mine. Can't wait Mom!

I made a wish

2008-11-05T10:02:00.008-05:00

...and it came true - and look how many more wishes came true...

... did you make the same wish as I?

Waldorf Puppet show & Blackboard drawings

2008-11-03T13:55:00.014-05:00

Here are a few more photos from the puppet show. It was dark inside so the photos are blurry.

Here is a shot of 2/3rd grade watercolor painting. I don't know (other than the obvious Halloween implications) what story was told while they painted.

We also have some very talented black board teacher drawings - first set is from the 4/5th grade teacher and the story of Indra slaying the dragon. (He had a third (of four) panels but I didn't get a photo of that one!)

This last one is from the 1st grade blackboard.

More Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T16:07:00.007-04:00

My new photo at the top has been dubbed by my husband as the "creepy guy" I thought of him as a sweet gnome - but now I see his point... hence the music - (Changed the music to more appropriate music for the rest of the post - it was the theme music to Halloween!).

By the way what do you think of music on blogs??

Sometimes I like it sometimes I don't.

This morning started out beautifully. My son was invited up to the barn for an all Kindergarten Halloween party. Said good morning to the cows & had a hay ride through the "wishes" of milkweed seeds.

Then a walk through the "ghost" woods to see Mother Nature. She gave them each a flower bulb to plant for Spring. (So sweet!)

We then walked back and had a really cute craft of gods eyes. Its a chestnut poked with 6 toothpicks and then you wind wool yarn around each pick. If you change yarn colors they really get colorful.

Snacks of popcorn and cider they were ready to walk into the barn for a beautiful puppet show. All was well and the weather was perfect (50+ and sunny).

I hope that you had/have a great Halloween as well.

Best wishes everybody and Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T08:41:00.004-04:00

Happy Halloween Everybody - I love this holiday. More photos to come!

My adventures at Rheinbeck Festival

2008-10-21T17:11:00.011-04:00

Hi and welcome to my windy October. Gusts of wind are up to 40 miles per hour and its cold! I'm glad that the weather (during the day) held off and were nice and sunny. The festival at Rheinbeck was so much fun. I have lots of photos to share.

This a beautiful wool from a Spinnery in Maine (that I have actually been too!) - It is wind powered and uses plant dyes. Wonderful colors and really nice people.

These are Romney sheep (I think, if I remember correctly). People here really love their animals - rightfully so.

This is how one company gets there roving. Its Merino wool and it was the coolest thing I ever saw - It was at least 100+ pounds worth.

This a painting done in wool - yes I said wool. Can you tell the size - look at the bottom and see the box. I think this would stand 5/6 feet tall and did I mention its all wool!

These were the best hats ever. I love the funk - which isn't too funky like some of them can get. She wanted $65 for the brown one and I almost bought it... I will have to see if I can do it myself.

I visited with my teachers at Sunbridge - no scratch that - Fiber Craft Studio and managed not to get a photo (sorry). I did see my great blogger friend Lisa Anne. So much fun to see you! I slept in my car in the parking lot (next to all the campers so as not to really be alone) and boy was it cold. It was down to 30/32 degrees at night and I love my new sleeping bag!

All this color is just giving me goose bumps!

I really had such a great time walking around and talking with people that had such a close interest and also so creative. The food was good but expensive and the $2.00 cup of coffee was $1.00 for the hand warmer and $1.00 for the luke warm drink after the first part did its job. The afternoons warned up quite a bit - in the 50's so that was nice. There were several natural dyers and also people that sold the supplies. Its so nice when you don't have to pay the shipping. It was however a 4 hour drive - but so worth it. Below is a photo of a beautiful Cotswold sheep in its harness to get shorn for a judging show.

Baaaa for now - dinner cooking.

Watercolor ink paintings

2008-10-15T07:49:00.006-04:00

We did this craft with my two boys and their two friends this past Monday. I really wouldn't call it a craft either - its beautiful art work! I think I am going to frame three of them and put them on the walls. I just love them and they had so much fun doing it. You just watercolor on wet paper a background color and then when that is dry you give them a dab of india ink at the bottom and a straw. Sometimes you need to add a bit more ink further up.

Wow what great colors they did. Love it. I found the idea on this web site if you need a bit more help. I wasn't as formal with the tape as she was. I found her site through the crafty crow blog which I can't recommend highly enough. SO many ideas.

I might try these smaller, on cards. Change the background colors to blues and you could have a really cool winer scene for christmas cards.

Fall days

2008-10-12T16:27:00.009-04:00

This past weekend has been a true Indian summer for us. The leaves are at their peak and the weather is HOT. 70's! I sat outside all day yesterday. The boys were not alowed back inside untill the sun went down. They made it too - lots of digging, stream splashing, leaf raking and general playing. Its great when you can take the time to be outside for that long.

I have finished needle felting three snowmen and a Tomten this weekend. Next weekend I am going to the Rhinebeck wool festival. I can't wait!! Of corse I dont need a stich of wool but that is soooo not the point.

Here is a shot (from last year) of a person that really knows how to display color!

Here are some examples of my 4/5th grade class doing their handworks bags. They really love it and are not wanting the class to end (what every teacher wants to hear).

It will be great to dive into the cross stitch next - I have one that really likes to argue his point and I love testing the waters with him.

2nd & 3rd grade

2008-10-04T15:25:00.011-04:00

Second grade knitting - it will be a stripped ball. The example I showed the class has the colors in a neat tidy rainbow and just assumed that the kids would follow... Oh no, they have to follow their own path and of course choose their own color order. Then I thought of course they do!

The pattern is just cast on 20 stitches (for a large handful ball) knit 4 ribs (1 rib = 2 rows of knit) of each color to make a rectangle. Shape wool batting in a ball by winding it like yarn. Place the ball in the center of the knitting and sew up the short side of the knitting to the other short side. Then take a fat needle and wind it around the very edge (long edge of the rectangle) to "gather", pull the string to close and tie. Repeat on the other side. Its a great ball - if you put a jingle bell in it - wrap it in paper first then the wool.

This is the crocheting from the third grade. They were limited to two colors (light and dark) which was a tough class in its self! Kids love to compromise. They drew, with the two colors, how they would strip the flute case. Its great to give them limited freedom. Two are finished and 4 are on their way. Next project will be a sample bag so i can teach them new stitches and how to blend color. Then off to making their crochet hat.

Octobers bright blue weather

2008-10-03T17:11:00.005-04:00

The changing colors of the trees are inspiring me to do more dyeing.

The other day there was a storm in the distance but the sun was setting. The dark blue gray of the sky played off the rays of color coming off the fall colored leaves & it was awesome (in the true sense of the word). I truly love change but fall is one of my favorite "changes" of the year. I don't have a photo yet of the blue sky and leaves but as soon as I can I will put one up.

Here is one with a more subtle sky so you can see a taste...

My grandmother, Me-Me's favorite poem was:

Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)

October's Bright Blue Weather

O SUNS and skies and clouds of June,

And flowers of June together,

Ye cannot rival for one hour

October's bright blue weather;

When loud the bumble-bee makes haste,

Belated, thriftless vagrant,

And Golden-Rod is dying fast,

And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

When Gentians roll their fringes tight

To save them for the morning,

And chestnuts fall from satin burrs

Without a sound of warning;

When on the ground red apples lie

In piles like jewels shining,

And redder still on old stone walls

Are leaves of woodbine twining;

When all the lovely wayside things

Their white-winged seeds are sowing,

And in the fields, still green and fair,

Late aftermaths are growing;

When springs run low, and on the brooks,

In idle golden freighting,

Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush

Of woods, for winter waiting;

When comrades seek sweet country haunts,

By twos and twos together,

And count like misers, hour by hour,

October's bright blue weather.

O suns and skies and flowers of June,

Count all your boasts together,

Love loveth best of all the year

October's bright blue weather.

Time is ticking

2008-09-29T18:58:00.002-04:00

I am feverishly needle felting away - only 7 more weeks till my big yearly show at the Waverly Community Artisans Market. I just got done photographing all my work to date. I have to make up business cards too. I have hear of this great company that takes your photos and then your info and you can chooses up to 50 different images for 50 different cards. The photo is on the back and usually like the photo on the front... time will tell which I choose.

Gotta put the boys to bed... good night.

Waldorf Doll Workshop

2008-09-29T08:31:00.007-04:00

So this was my second waldorf doll workshop. It was really nice and 2 completed the doll (with hair) and the others completed the body. As the hours ticked by I would say - so now how much do you think you would pay an artisan for one of these dolls!

Its hard work but they all came away with a lovely doll.

I even had a 10 year old (her second time participating) complete her doll. Everybody had a plan for there creation - lots were for their own babies and some were for cousins.

What joy it brought to see them all in a row like this.

We did order pre-sewn bodies because we have no sewing machines in the classroom - they poured their love into them and they came out great. I will be donating the doll I made to our local Elves Faire that is happening November 22. If it doesn't sell there I will place the doll at my etsy site for sale. I will lot you know if that happens.

A girl turns 40

2008-09-23T10:02:00.008-04:00

Sooo, can you guess where I was taken for my 40th birthday??

Las Vegas Baby!

We were so out of our element but boy did we have fun. We didn't win anything fantastic and didn't lose the farm but had a blast! We stayed in Paris - very nice with a great buffet for breakfast. You think that one hotel is just "right next to this one" but its more like 2 city blocks just to get to the corner of the next block then another block to get to the doorway and so on. I wore sneakers and only pulled out the heels for my birthday diner. The Bellagio water fountain to music was really cool. We had dinner at Yellow tail (fabulous sushi) outside and saw the water every 15 minutes. Really nice - my husband gets real points for this one!

Form Drawing & Dalia Flowers

2008-09-16T12:52:00.008-04:00

I took my sons out biking the other day and he said " Hey Mom, look at me - straight and the curved just like that drawing stuff we are doing".

I always believe in my heart that Waldorf influence is doing my kids good - but for them to come out and say something like that, for a 5 year old to be able to think and relate is wonderful.

Form drawing is a wonderful way to help your child with his future or current handwriting, frame of mind and over all comfort with drawing.

Here is my newest experiment with dye. Its from a Dalia flower that was dark plum in color. I used 4 huge flowers - 2 that were dried up and dead and 2 fresh. I have gotten so much color out of this pot I am thrilled. I also after getting a lot of green dye out have now started to get a purple/gray purple on silk after all that green. Yes same pot and mordant - crazy. I have hear of Saffron being able to do that with cotton and silk but this is great.

2008-09-15T17:11:00.003-04:00

Look what showed up at my door today...

My sister contacted Natural Pod and asked if they could donate items to our new Waldorf school and look what they sent. Its wonderful - I especially love the wooden puzzle. Miss Devon will be so surprised when I show up with all of this tomorrow.

Consider Natural Pod when you shopping on the web - they have a beautiful heart.

Lots to show and tell

2008-09-13T18:49:00.011-04:00

Lots to show - here is my sons kindergarten - beautiful room.

He loves school - such a change from last year.

My older one loves school too - we have the "best" teacher in the building - Yea!

I was dyeing with goldenrod and dyers coriopsis today - beautiful oranges and yellow. Goldenrod changes if you put it in an ammonia water bath. The three on the left are all out of the same pot. The colors are just so striking. The yellows are for the first grade knit lion project. I would think they will start it after the holidays. It will be great to bring the sunshine into the classroom during the cold winter months.

This is the Dyers coriopsis flower - different from the yellow version.

Here we are flying kites and my husband is cutting down the hops up on the porch. He use to make lots of beer but house projects have taken over lately. I hope he makes more soon - I might steal some of the flowers to dye with if he is not careful!!

Can't you just taste them!!

Please find time to give

2008-09-12T15:22:00.009-04:00

I am participating in this auction for a woman in need - Carol Decker. I don"t know her but she needs help with a most difficult birth. I can only imagine what she and her family may be going through. If you can, please visit and bid on an item, Donate yourself and in general wish her well.

http://www.auctionforcarol.blogspot.com/

First day of teaching

2008-09-04T08:14:00.003-04:00

I had a great first day. We had opening ceremonies with lovely 2 cellos playing while the parents and siblings arrived. There was a short history and then the teachers & staff were introduced - there are 16 of us! It was a beautiful and powerful sight. Then the older grades played a song while the 1st graders carries a flower under a flowing silk to their new teacher. Andi then told a story (for us all to hear) and then we walked up to the school house and revealed the new school sign. It was very emotional and I loved being a part of it.

Class went very well and I dived into it. The 4/5 grades are making their designs for their handworks bag - some of which have a strong opinion (imagine that!). The 2/3 grades are in a mixed class as well and it will prove difficult if I don't get some parent help. I have two people in the works hopefully I will get more. Grade 2 are going to learn how to pearl (with 3 that don't know how to knit) and Grade 3 will be crocheting (with 2 that don't know how). There are 12 total. Sigh - I love it already. They have release forms for everybody so I hope to have photos of the kids hands working every once in a while.