Autumn Craft - Suncatchers

We have been having some lovely Autumn Farm Play days lately.  Farm Play is the playgroup I run at PEACE Farm on Wednesday mornings for preschoolers. Lately the children have enjoyed climbing the trees to see the leaves changing colours and collecting big piles to hide and play in.

We have also been doing some lovely Autumn crafts. I wanted to share a simple idea you can do at home which is easy even for young children.

You will need:  Baking paper, glue, scissors, autumn leaves, and other bits of wool or paper.

Cut a 40cm length of baking paper and fold in half lengthways.  Cut the corners to make a rounded edge. Collect autumn leaves of all shapes and sizes and colours.  Open the folded baking paper. Cover the inside of the baking paper with glue.  Stick on your autumn leaves, and wool/paper.  Re-fold and press to stick.  Leave to dry.  Stick on a window to make a beautiful suncatcher.

Celebrating Lammas

Lammas is a celebration at the mid point between the Summer Solstice and the Autumn Equinox.
The essence of this festival is to celebrate the first harvest.

It is a time to give thanks for the Abundance of the Earth, acknowledging what we harvest from our efforts, what gifts we receive from the Earth.
It is also a time of dry heat, grass fire, and bush fire.
The main colours are yellow, orange and red (dry grass, corn, tomatoes...)

Today we gathered in the circle and shared about what we were symbolicly harvesting in our life.

We made some corn dollies from the harvest of our corn and wheat from our mandala garden.

"Corn Dolly" is an ancient craft going back to when it was thought that a spirit lived in the cornfields. To honour and preserve the spirit at harvest time and ensure the success of next year's harvest, a corn dolly was made for it to rest in.

Christmas Crafting at Peace Farm

This Christmas at Peace Farm, we all set a wonderful intention to make or recycle as many presents as possible. In particular, both Cat & I got quite excited by this prospect and went wild crafting.

In addition I also aimed at using materials from nature and locally gathered and these are some of the results....

God's Eyes: created first by the American Indians, God's Eyes have been used for many reasons, including protection from evil spirits and going on shamanic vision quests.

Dream Catchers: were also created by American Indians and have often been used to ward off bad dreams from sleeping babies. The web is said to catch any bad dreams and by the light of the morning sun's rays to dissolve them.

Treasure Pots: I first started crocheting these little pots without really knowing what I would put in them.

I later decided the obvious thing would be flowers!!

Story Stones: I have been dot painting rocks for many years but started to simplify this process (having a very curious daughter) to use a white marker pen. Very important to varnish with matt varnish if you want the design to stay!

And finally, my cards for the year had to be very simple my daughter Grace keen to try everything for herself. This year I focused on using pressed gum leaves accompanied by little sayings or songs.

More nature crafts to come!...
Vicky