Seasonal Tree Craft

The Presence of Trees
by Michael S. Glaser

I have always felt the living presence of trees

the forest that calls to me as deeply as I breathe,

as though the woods were marrow of my bone
as though

I myself were tree, a breathing, reaching arc of the larger canopy

beside a brook bubbling to foam
like the one

deep in these woods,
that calls

that whispers home

On Sunday, my sister, who is visiting from Colorado, and I left our kiddos with our hubbies and drove down to Playa del Rey to participate in a class on making a "Tall Tale Tree Sculpture". The class was run by an amazingly talented artist/Waldorf momma named Phaedra Cheydleur who holds classes in the Los Angeles area. More information on her classes can be found here. She is also open to private classes so contact her if there is something you wish to make, even if the class has already passed :). She's wonderful!

The class took approximately 6 hours and we still were not quite done, but we were thrilled with how our creations turned out. Here's a shot of my tree, which was decorated with the green "leaves" by one of my daughters.

My dear sister made the girls some basic gnomes for Christmas, but we got them in July :) and I put the babies under the tree, along with the bunnies I felted for spring and a beeswax yellow bird I made, as well. It will be such fun to decorate for the seasons and I am anxious to make more. The tree was made using pipe cleaners and wool felt.

Phaedra's etsy shop can be found here. For those living in Southern Cal, she is also going to be teaching a basic needle felting 101 class at the CHN (California Homeschool Network) Expo in 3 weeks! Please let me know if you are going so I can look for you there :)

I'm taking Phaedra's class on needle-felting playscapes in August, so if anyone wants to join me, I'd love to meet you there (Annemarie - hint...hint ;D). Here is a link to that session, which will probably be Aug 8th and 15th in Topanga Canyon...