Thursday, July 9, 2009

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...

7 comments:

  1. So beautiful. I would love a class like that.

    Lisa ;)

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  2. Lisa, you're so incredibly creative and crafty, I'm sure your trees would be breathtaking :) Phaedra's classes are amazing so I hope I see some locals from the group partaking!!!

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  3. Wow Lisa, what a beautiful little tree! I love the little toadstools that you've included. Great job and great crafting skills!

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  4. Oh your tree is amazing!!! It is so beautiful, I completely love it! Oh I wish I could go to the class with you it would be so fun! Alas I am on the other side of the states. Here on the East coast. I need to look into seeing if there are some Waldorf classes around me. Thanks for sharing your tree it will be a wonderful addition to your nature table!

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  5. Oh, wow! What a gorgeous, magical tree. We've tried to needles felt trees and haven't been too successful. I would love to learn how to do this. It's great that you took the time to attend the class. Have fun at CHN...wish I could be there. :)

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  6. Your tree is absolutely amazing Jennifer, so beautiful. How wonderful that you and your sister could go on this creative journey together...

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  7. Thanks guys! Jennifer, I am going to make another tree and will document what I'm doing. It's kind of hard to just explain so I'll post that and then you guys can set to work on some trees of your own - will try to get to that this weekend :) And I wish you were coming to the CHN Expo, as well!!!!

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