September Seasonal Table

Septembers Seasonal Display 🌾 🐁 🍎

It’s been a while since I posted my seasonal display, this month our display is reflecting the story for Waldorf Magic. We have some loose roving rolled to make hay bales, wet felted apples on our apple tree, real wheat and blackberries set into our display in little vases, and some little animals hiding, can you spot them all?

I am going to make some little children for the display I think over the course of the month, which will see us through autumn and winter.

Looking forward to getting into autumn mode over the next few weeks. I really feel like although the weather has definitely turned, I am holding onto those last moments of summer, the last evenings of light and abundance of the garden. Have you got into autumn mode or are you hanging onto summer for dear life?

Wet Felting with Children

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Wet felting a Waldorf favourite and a favourite of ours as a family.

Wet felting has so many sensory benefits to it and really encourages the child to really ground themselves whilst they consider the movement of their hands, the gentle and gradually increasing pressure they apply as they roll the felt into apples (in this case). It is an activity which can centre and calm.

Wet felting does not have to be done with the hands, when children have high energy levels, filling a bowl with a little warm soapy water and some lavender oil and allowing them to stomp on wool in the bowl with their feet to felt it, can not only provide much needed satisfaction in movement, but can help ground them and calm them ready for play. These special mats of felt can then be dried and repurposed into handwork, scenery for the nature table or made into gifts at special times of the year.

So what is the key to great wet felting?

• Good quality wool roving, the finer the feel the smoother the wool will felt, of course there are so many breeds of sheep which produce rich colours and textures so try mixing them by ‘hand carding’ ⬇️

• Hand carding is another way to mix colours and blend wool types, it’s fun to do simply brushing the wool across the carders (a carder in each hand) to separate the fibres. If you haven’t any hand carders buy some fine dog brushes (I’ll post in stories) they honestly are a lot smaller but great for children to learn to use and do the job well - at a fraction of the cost they are great if you are on a budget.

• Use plenty of natural soap - soap opens up the fibres to allow the wool to felt, and the children find that so fun. Make sure you rinse the finished work in cold water and gently press the water from it, as soap can make the wool brittle over time.

• Slowly we go - take your time and enjoy the process felting is a process and not instant, the beauty of felting is you can go back to it and continue another day.

Have a go and enjoy felting and if you are a seasoned felter have a go with your feet if you haven’t already! You won’t regret it haha!

Peace and love to you all for a lovely weekend

K x

Team work Chaffinch

🎨 Teamwork makes the dream work 🎨

We love telling stories here at home and we have missed the rhythm of it somewhat over the past four weeks so we are looking forward to getting back to it.

One of Septembers story makes for Waldorf Magic is a Chaffinch, our Chaffinch this month is extra special as it is a Chaffinch made by myself and the little one. One side is my effort, the other side is hers (swipe to see) I think it looks so lovely and the little one is so proud that we made it together!

Finger puppets are a lovely easy make and some white felt with some watercolour can make anything truly unique.

Have you done any collaborative crafts lately? I would love to hear what you enjoy doing with your children.