A cold Tuesday morning, December 3, 2013
On this cold December morning, our craft group huddled in the back storage room of The Company of Angels school store at about 9am to prepare little treasures for our upcoming (this Saturday December 7, 2013!) Winter Festival’s Elves Workshop. Some of us made beeswax-decorated candles, others made Needle-Felting pictures on prefelt backing as Christmast Ornaments for Winter Festival Elves Workshop. I love working with the lightweight prefelt that Christine brought in. What a joy to create on them!
Thank you Christine Newell and Rachel Skelly for organizing our Waldorf School of Orange County weekly craft group get-togethers! – Jzin
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- Our creative journey today: Please feel free to leave comments on the bottom of the page. Share with us your crafting process, insights, experiences, etc.
- Please support handmade this holidays: Castle of Costa Mesa’s handmade treasures on Etsy
- Miss Upside Down Surprise Pansy Flower Fairy with a bonnet with sash.
- Local Happenings here in Orange County
- Many of our Waldorf School of Orange County students will be dancing in this lavish performance of Nutcracker Ballet at Irvine Barclay Theater – come and enjoy this season’s wonderous ballet!
- Support Our Local Southern California Waldorf Community
- Gallery Waldorf School of Orange County past craft group projects
Gallery of Past Projects from The Waldorf School of Orange County Craft Group
Click on the image below to view our craft group projects from the past.
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Preparing for this Saturday’s Winter Festival 2013
Winter Festival is a much anticipated school wide celebration. The seventh graders will working with this. Many busy handwork elves have been silently working on handcrafts to supply this magical Elves Workshop.
Here are the little elves in my home doing their share. You can click on this link to see more pictures of my children making Winter Gnomes for this event.
Here are some beautiful sights from our magical Elves Workshop from 2013 Winter Festival…
Click on the picture below to see pictures from 2012 Elves Workshop at Winter Festival that year.
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Felted pictures on prefelt backing as Christmas tree ornaments for Winter Festival Elves Workshop
We created needle-felted pictures using prefelt, instead of felt pieces as backings. I love this fluffy prefelt! They are much easier to needle-felt than the dense regular felt. When we completed our pictures, we sew on colorful felt backings for a more finished look. We added a ribbon or yarn to enable these pictures to be displayed on a Christmas tree or on the wall.
Christine told me she bought her prefelt from Northeast Fiber Arts Center online. I also found that New England Felting Supply sells them for $18.95 ($12.95+$6 shipping) for 1 meter pieces.
This is a wonderful and freeing and quick project. We enjoyed making these very much.
Here was one of my wool roving sketch below.
This method of “painting” becomes very easy once you selected your wool roving. You can immediately see what color scheme you have by looking at the wool on your foam pad.
Blocking in my “painting” with the background layer of night sky and green sea.
I like to use my triple needles inside my Clover felting pen, while having a single needle floating around for working on details and areas that I do not want to over-needle felt.
Needle-felting is like painting with oil pastels/crayon plus sculpting at the same time. It is also forgiving. You can always pull off and reuse the wool and re-compose your picture.
The prefelt (base of my picture) is stretchable. I started with a circular picture but stretched it into an oval shape to accommodate my mermaid in the end. Yet another feature of prefelt that I love compared to felt backing.
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Josephine composing her wool picture.
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding—
Riding—riding—
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
– The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes.
Josephine’s little dancing elfin…
The wonder of this craft is, it is really quick to make… and so much fun to create!
My fluffy little toadstool home. I love this medium! It’s so fluffy you will want to jump inside and sleep in this bed of fluff!
Puffy, fluffy and three dimensional. Needle-felted pictures are soft like marshmallows!
I was in the mood to convey the holy aspect of this season to the children at the Elves Workshop. Therefore this was my first piece from this morning …
Guarded from harm
Cared for by angels
Here stand we
Loving and strong
Truthful and good
(Thank you Kurt Faerber, our Eurythymy teacher for introducing me to the verse above, which I love, love. I think it is wonderful to recite with small children.)
Meanwhile, I am also working on my Snowflake Babies for our Winter Seasons Nature table. As a scientist, I have traipsied far from conventional ways of depicting crystals of water.
Christine’s Christmas tree ornament decoration: Little dwarf dancing by a fire.
These were quick projects done in a morning. Christine painted her airy angel with wispy white wool top brush strokes.
This was Kathy’s first time needle-felting a picture. Here, she made a cardinal nesting in tree. All needle-felted pictures including Kathy’s were donated to 2013 Winter Festival Elves Workshop.
Felt pictures on prefelt, ready to be blanket stitched onto colorful felt backings and hung on Christmas trees.
Click on the picture below to look at our craft group making needle-felted pictures last year.
The picture above was made last year by Cathrine Ji.
You can always needle-felt wool pictures onto your wool Christmas stockings or “ugly” Christmas sweaters. Here is a spectacular one! Put that on, and go Christmas caroling. “Is this jacket insulated?” “Well, it’ll keep ye Lukewarm.”
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Making Beeswax-Decorated Candles
Some candle-decorating elves, 2013.
Here are some of the (many, many… Christine counted about 800 or so items) items handmade in preparation to enchant the children at the weekend’s Winter Festival.
Candle decorating last year (2012) at craft group …
Click on the picture below to see our candle-decorating last year.
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Please Support Handmade This Holiday Season: Castle of Costa Mesa on Etsy shop
Clicking on each picture will take you to more pictures of that item’s listing on my Etsy store.
My felted mermaid and her cozy home. They are available for purchase on Castle of Costa Mesa Etsy store. Click on the picture below to enter my store.
Also recently added to my Etsy store… Miss Upside Down Surprise Pink Rose flower fairy modeled by my 9 year old daughter. You see a rose. When you flip it over, it’s a flower fairy!
A little baby faun and more. Please support handmade and shop at Castle of Costa Mesa handmade Etsy store this holidays. Thank you! – Jzin
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Please “Like” us on Facebook
Please “Like” us on Facebook (top left sidebar of this page). You will be connected to what we do here, plus you will be notified on our up coming handmade giveaways. Thank you! – Jzin
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Local Happenings
The Nutcracker Ballet at Irvine Barclay Theatre, December 2013
This year again, many of our Waldorf School students, including my daughter (who will be performing as a “Little Party Girl”) will be dancing at The Irvine Barclay Theater’s Nutcracker. This will be a lavish ballet performance with over 200 dancers! Do not miss it!
Here is my daughter’s ballet teacher, Mr. Askar (the man in the middle couple, on center stage), he will also be dancing in the ballet…
Every time I see a costumed ball, my heart palpitates! After all, I first met my man when he asked me from among the crowd for a Viennese waltz! We danced as the chanteuse belted songs of Edith Piaf in that crowded café and never parted since.
The Nutcracker Ballet: 12/13/2013 – 12/24/2013
Tickets: $40 adults; $37 seniors; $35 children
Tickets can be purchase by clicking on the image below.
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Don’t forget to come check out our school store, The Company of Angels, it is particularly beautiful this time of year.
Jenny’s Fabrics Annual Sale 20% off!
Piecemakers Christmas Village
December 7, 2013. Costa Mesa, California
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Support Our Local Waldorf Community/ Place a Free Ad
If you are interested in placing an ad on “Support Our Southern California Waldorf Community” (free if you are a member of Southern California Waldorf community) please e-mail me a good picture and a link.
Meanwhile, please support our local peeps! Thanks! – Jzin
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Waldorf Seasons Table Dolls by Castle of Costa Mesa
Castle of Costa Mesa’s Etsy Store
Please support my crafting mania by shopping on my handmade Etsy store on the link below. Please do! – Jzin
Click on the image below to enter Castle of Costa Mesa Etsy store
Just for fun, click here instead view a gallery of my handmade dolls.
Castle of Costa Mesa Handmade Doll Giveaways
I give away my lovingly handmade dolls periodically. If you “Like” my Castle of Costa Mesa Facebook page, you will be notified of upcoming giveaways. Click here to view the list of my past giveaways. Perhaps the next winner could be YOU?
Photos from Waldorf School of Orange County Craft Group
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