EASTER
Happy Spring, Friends!
Felted eggs aren’t just for Easter. A bowl full of colorful felted wool eggs also makes a beautiful centerpiece or decoration for the home. Wool eggs also make a great addition to a nature table, a child’s play kitchen, and are fun for market play.
Resources
Are you an experienced felter? Have any tips to add? If you’ve never wet felted before, are you inspired to try?
Please leave your comments below and post your photos on our Facebook page!
As many of you know, I was in Germany last week attending the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg.
Not only was I ecstatic to discover many wonderful new wooden toys and Waldorf dolls to introduce this year at Bella Luna Toys, but I was also fortunate to have the opportunity to meet with the presidents of several of the lines of European toys we carry, including Grimm’s Spiel & Holz, PlanToys, Käthe Kruse, HABA, and Ostheimer.
I had a long and wonderful visit with Wolfgang Schühle, the president of Ostheimer in Germany, and met Stephan Zech, the company’s current designer. I was able to share with them my love of Ostheimer figures and tell them about the joy they have brought my family over the last 20 years.
Wolfgang was able to share with me some of the history of the company, founded by Margarete Ostheimer in Stuttgart, Germany nearly 60 years ago. Fortunately, I was able to record some of my talk with Mr. Schühle and am happy to share it with you here!
I want to share my Ostheimer love with you, so Bella Luna Toys is giving away a set of these beloved wooden figures, perfect for a child’s Easter basket!
Set Includes:
Click on the link below for details and to enter for a chance to win:
We’ll announce the winner next Sunday. Thanks for tuning in, and good luck!
Thanks to all of you for your many wonderful comments. Congratulations to Toby Rolf who won the Ostheimer Set Giveaway!
Toby wrote: “We are pretty new to the Waldorf world so I would really LOVE to have these for our daughter! She would especially like the beautiful bunny! Thank you for the opportunity!!”
I hope that this set brings many years of enjoyment and fond childhood memories for your daughter, Toby. Enjoy!
~Sarah
Spring has finally sprung here in Maine! This morning, after three days of deluge-like rainfall and flooding, we finally awoke to bright and welcome sunshine. When I stepped outside this morning, I saw the first spring bulbs blooming outside my doorstep. I was heartened that they had survived the pounding rain, and it inspired me to grab my camera. You can see, the honeybees are already out now, too!
The flowering bulbs reminded me that (yikes!) Easter is only three days away. My boys, being teenagers now, aren’t champing at the bit to color Easter eggs as the did when they were younger, but when I gently queried William (the artist formerly known as Whit) as to whether he was expecting a visit from the Easter bunny this year, he made it clear in no uncertain terms that he is. Made me realize it’s time to dye some eggs!
Photo by Emily Weaver Brown, used with permission.
While I was teaching, we would always dye eggs naturally in our class, using colorful vegetables and fruits to produce subtle but beautiful hues. Red cabbage (yields a vibrant blue), and yellow onion skins (burnt sienna) were my favorites. We’d let the eggs soak in the dye baths overnight, then the real fun came the next day when we would pull the eggs out from under layers of cabbage, and later slowly un-peel the layers of onion skins that were wrapped and tied around each egg.
When they eggs were dry, we’d rub a little vegetable oil over each one to give them a glistening sheen. Gently, we’d place them in the baskets of Easter grass we’d grown, and admire them as a marvelous, colorful centerpiece before the children took them home for Easter.
Here’s a website with great recipes for dyeing eggs naturally.
Has anyone had success dyeing with other plant materials?
Triple love this crafty idea from Kimara over at Wee Folk Art (one of my favorite blogs for Waldorf-inspired crafts). Make your own Soy Crayon Eggs for Easter! Similar to the soy-based Crayon Rocks sold at Bella Luna Toys, a carton of these colorful egg-sized crayons is sure to delight any child on Easter morning.
Be sure to visit www.weefolkart.com for instructions on making this delightful and colorful project. Thank you, Kimara!
