OH I love the change of the season, and spring is my favourite time, everything is lush and the earth is full of promise. Yellow daffodils are popping up, Blue skies are bold, pink rambling roses are so velvety! It is the perfect time of the year to introduce extra colur onto your table and into your art works.
NATURE TABLE
I like to start planning my new nature table at this time, I look for my colour insparations and prepare my nature table cloths for dyeing. This is a very easy task to fulfill and I keep it really simple. I use cotton muslin as it is a great natural fibre that is well priced and it dyes easily. This is my method...
1] Buy a square piece of muslin [150cm x 150cm] and check it is 100% cotton.
2] Purchase a sachet of dye from the Pharmacy. For spring you can either stay with traditional waldorf colours [soft green, soft pink, soft gold] or you can look into your environment and see the natural colour pallet. [this spring we will use greens, white and yellow as we are surronded by green wheat fields, white namaqualand daisies and yellow canola fields.]
2] Purchase a sachet of dye from the Pharmacy. For spring you can either stay with traditional waldorf colours [soft green, soft pink, soft gold] or you can look into your environment and see the natural colour pallet. [this spring we will use greens, white and yellow as we are surronded by green wheat fields, white namaqualand daisies and yellow canola fields.]
3] It is a great idea to hold your cloth at the center point and slowly lower it into in dye bath. If you do this really slowly [5-10 minutes] you will have a cloth that is gently toned with the center of the cloth being the lightest. When this cloth is put on the table you will have a subtle colour variation that will create different depths and tones. Sooo Pretty.
4] Remember to fix the dye [refer to packaging] and hand out to dry
5] Now hem the edges.
It is also I nice idea to grow bulbs in a open neck vase filled with pebbles and water. White or pink Hyacinthes are ideal for this, and can be bought in nurseries in a pack with a special vase. [next year you need only buy the bulb]. Your child will be able to watch the roots grow and the bulb diminish as the energy all goes into the flower and the leaves. It is like watching a miracle, and is a perfect way to have the beauty of natural science in your home.
For felt work [or clay work] make bees, butterflies and ladybugs and sweet flowers for the table.
If you dont want to create your own felt then purchase some premade felt and cut out 2 petal rings and sew them together - this is easy for little hands to do and is fun to have a special flower for the spring table or to decorate your spring picnic basket.
Knitting for the nature table is always fun. I plan to knit the following
Lady birds - http://knittingonthenet.com/patterns/miscladybug.htm
Bees [of course] - http://www.christinelandry.com/?p=3
Make a birds nest from pulverised reeds. soak the reeds in water untill they ferment, then the fibres will seperate and become soft and pliable. Ideal for nesting material. Or watch what the birds are collecting and mimick them. In our garden the weaver birds pull the fronds on the palm tree to shreds and use this for nest building, so we will try this. :-) Linda suggested using finger knitting to make a nest, [Linda please post a picture to this blog when you get a chance]
For the Spring equinox make a special meal remembering you are celebrating the balance between night and day [length] and the beauty of the floral kingdom. So choose your menu accordingly, with ideas like, flower shaped half rye half wheat bread [roll your dough into even numbered rolls use one for the center and position the others around it.] Make a salad that is half leaves and half flowers. Make a flower arrangement that is half pink and half yellow. Put flowers into everything..... bake a spring cake and decorate it with flowers.... serve iced mint tea with block of ice with a nasturtium petals frozen in.
Have a really wonderful spring filled with star gazing, cloud gazing, laughter and love.
