Waldorf’s Biodynamic Farm in Mbagathi, Kenya
Stick Loom Weaving
-Shared by Miss Ivy, Garden Instructor / May 19th, 2020
Marisol’s Garden Alphabet
Shared by Miss Ivy, Garden Instructor / May 10th, 2020
A Handmade Broom Project
–Shared by Miss Ivy, Garden Instructor/ May 5th, 2020
The first thing I did was assemble my materials. The stalks of the broom corn were soaking in water all morning to soften them up. You can see that I have: broom corn, my handle, a knife, sharp shears, twine and a length of 2 x 4.
After I had everything together, I drilled a small hole through the end of my handle. After that, I got my twine ready. I cut a piece about 1 foot long folded it in half and tied the ends together to make a loop. This is called the rip cord. It gets used at the very end, but at that point you only have one free hand because one of your hands is holding the broom, so you have to make your rip cord at the beginning. I also tied some twine around the 2 x 4 and then wrapped it around and around and around until I had about 9 yards of twine wrapped around the 2 x 4. The 2 x 4 is long enough that I can step on either side of it a create tension while I’m wrapping the twine around the broom corn.
Next, I tied the end of the twine through the hole in my handle and holding the handle in my left hand, wrapped the twine towards myself three times. See how my feet keep the twine nice and tight? Whenever I needed to, I just let the wood flip over to let out more twine, and could slide my feet forward or back to make it tighter or looser.
After that, I started adding the stalks of corn, laying them underneath the twine and then rolling the handle toward myself. I added the broomcorn one at a time until they went all the way around, then wrapped really tight around all of them three times.
Once the stalks went all the way around, I started the over under weaving. This is the part I had to do 3 or 4 times. At first, I had the wrong number of stalks (you need an odd number!) and then I slipped and my wrap came loose so I had to start over. Then I was pulling too tight and my string broke! Then I decided that I didn’t like the way the stalks were arranged. It was quite a comedy of errors, but now I can give you all really sound advice about how to do it right the first time! In the end, I think it turned out nice!
Once the weaving was done, it was time to sew the broom flat. In the book I have, it recommends using a vice which would be really easy to make, but I didn’t have the right materials on hand so I tried to do it without the vice. I also don’t have a broom needle so instead I used a tapestry needle from Otis’ handwork bag. Again, in the end, it turned out alright and I learned a lot.
Once the sewing was done it was just a matter of trimming up the ends! The best part about making a broom was that even though I made a huge mess in my kitchen, in the end I had something to use to clean it up!
Pressed Flower and Paper Stained Glass Window
– Shared by Miss Ivy, Garden Instructor / April 28th, 2020
Happy Earth Day 2020
Thank you SCWS Community for supporting our Waldorf 100 tree planting efforts!
Click on the picture to watch a short video highlighting the work done by SCWS students, staff and parents this year.
Shared by Miss Ivy, Garden Instructor / April 22nd, 2020
How to Make a Flower Press
Shared by Miss Ivy, Gardner Instructor / April 13th, 2020
WORMS!
I want to share with you about real worms! With all this rain, there’s been lots and lots of worms when I am digging so I thought I’d share a bit about these special creatures and then if you have a patch of dirt somewhere to dig in, you can go look for some of your own to observe.
Firstly, I should point out that there’s lots of different kinds of worms. In fact, there are one million different kinds of worm in the world! Some live in soil and some in water, some are parasites (they live inside other animals!) and one kind from Australia grows more than 3 ft long and makes a cocoon the size of a chicken egg!!
If you’ve seen a worm recently, it’s probably either what we call a “night crawler” or a “red wriggler.” When you see these two side by side, it’s not hard to tell them apart. When I was digging in my backyard last week, Otis and I found a huge night crawler and I took a picture of it next to a red worm from the compost pile. Look at the size difference! Red worms are usually between 2-3 inches while night crawlers can get up to 14 inches.
Go get a ruler and draw one line for a red worm and one for a night crawler. Finish the drawing by turning those lines into worms. If you’d like, you can even label your worms parts using the diagram at the bottom.
-Shared by Miss Ivy, Garden Instructor / April 6th, 2020
The Magic Meadow 