tattooing with henna

I picked up The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule on Friday evening and finished it this morning. It’s well-suited for someone who is just dipping their toes into Waldorf/Steiner parenting approaches for the first time. The design and photographs of Amanda’s children are so sweet and make the book a pleasant visual journey. My only wish is for more inventive and indeed, creative, ideas and for them to be described in more detail. Some of her reviewers on Amazon say that the ideas and craft projects are commonly found in Waldorf/Steiner or Montessori resources, but as this was the first parenting book I have ever purchased, I didn’t think that criticism would apply for me. I did find many of the ideas and projects in the book blogged about online already on the blogs and websites of Waldorf/Steiner parents, which often include step-by-step photographs and have the added benefit of letting you interact the parent with questions about anything that wasn’t clear. The tutorials in The Creative Family were very brief and would mention making some knot or using some kind of stitch that I was not familiar with, while I needed a little more guidance. The book was published almost two years ago, so it’s to be expected that some of Amanda’s ideas can now be found in blogs, perhaps even as a result of reading about them in her book.

Overall, it was a light and enjoyable read, and I’ve definitely reached the back cover with a couple of inspiring projects to tackle. One of them is a recipe for henna.

You will need:

• Black tea in teabag
• 1 cup henna powder (look for fresh, fine powder like the consistency of baby powder, as these will give the best results)
• Freshly squeezed juice of a lemon
• 1 tsp of ground cloves (enhances the colour)
• Essential oil containing terpineols (e.g. eucalyptus, lavender)
• Sugar (optional)

What to do:

1. Boil about 5cm (2”) of water in a saucepan. Toss in the tea bag and cloves and leave to infuse for a few hours.
2. Stir in a few drops of essential oil, always use wooden utensils instead of metal.
3. Stir the tea brew through the powder, using a little at a time to ensure that your paste doesn’t become too thin. It should become the consistency of yoghurt. It’s alright if you don’t use all of your brew.
4. Add the lemon juice and stir the paste until it thickens more until it resembles more like toothpaste.
5. Once the henna paste is finished, let it sit for a while, preferably overnight.
6. The henna paste can be applied to the skin using icing bags with a fine tip, strong zip-lock bag with a tiny hole cut at a corner, paintbrush or other applicator, or special henna cones.
7. After the design is painted onto the skin, you can apply a mixture of equal parts lemon juice and sugar to the paste to keep it in place and apply some heat either by placing the hands (carefully!) near a candle or with a hairdryer. Avoid washing the hands during this time.
8. The paste will dry completely after approximately 4 hours. Scrape it off. Your hands can now be washed.

This is not the recipe in Amanda’s book (she doesn’t use the sugar-lemon mixture and lets her paste dry and fall off more quickly). It is very similar, but I adapted it with some other recipes I found online. One of my favourite drinks is chai, which can be easily made at home if you have a well-stocked pantry. I make my chai with black tea cooked over the stove which I make with equal parts water and milk, and then I add a stick of cinnamon, 4 cardamom pods, 4 whole cloves, and sugar to taste. I strain the tea and serve warm.
I think Amanda’s henna painting activity may be a fun activity to do in combination with teaching children a little more about Indian culture. I live a suburb away from a lively Indian neighbourhood and it would not be too difficult for me to sip chai with my buntens as we wait for our henna pastes to set while we watch a Bollywood film together. Or if that’s a little too inaccessible for them, I would love to honour Diwali with them. Here is a blog post from a Waldorf parent about how her child celebrated Diwali in their kindergarten class!

For more henna recipes, visit The Art of Mehndi.

For other chai recipes, visit Chai!

wet felting balls

This Bun is a little bit worse for wear this week (but just a little!).  I have juggled tutoring, with data collection, meetings, editing my thesis and teaching training and it feels like I have managed to cram three full-time workloads into the one week.  But please keep your condolences!  I’ve also been feeling exuberant for the opportunity to get out of the house, the exercise and sensory delight of walking through the leafy cobblestone trails of my campus, and the scintillating company of my colleagues and students.

I had a meeting with my supervisors yesterday to receive some feedback for the last piece of work I sent them.  As always, my supervisors were extremely constructive, although honest about the fact that my first draft needed more work, yet they continually praised me for what I did right and assured me that some imperfection and uncertainty is definitely to be expected so that I didn’t walk away feeling discouraged.  Despite this, I have accepted the truth that supervisory meetings are more often than not, very overwhelming for me.  No matter the feedback, you walk away from any (good) meeting with a full plate of work, even if your supervisors gave you detailed and valuable information and guidance to complete them, you’re reminded that you’re treading the deep waters of a PhD.

I have decided that from now on after all my supervisory meetings, my schedule remains clear for me to return home to a hot shower, a cup of tea and a leisurely evening spent watching comedies (I have developed a new addiction to The Colbert Report).

In the morning, I also picked up the felting kit I ordered from Etsy from the post office, but was crushed to find that the seller had forgotten to pack felting needles.  Luckily, she separately mailed them out to me today, and in the meantime I had some fun making wet felted balls for acorns and toys for Salmon!

Although it requires a lot more elbow grease than it looks and my fingers got all pruny after 40 minutes of rolling a wet wad of wool around in my hands (renewed respect for felters!), it was so much fun!  I think I have found my favourite craft.

To make these, all you need is:

• Wool roving, tear into small tufts
• Dishwashing detergent (or soap will do)
• Bowl of hot water
• Bowl of cold water (optional)
• Tea towel

Begin by taking a small tuft of roving, drizzle hot water over it and very gently, begin rolling it in your hands until it starts to form a puffy ball.  Gently tease apart your tufts of wool roving so that they become more like thin sheets and wrap around your loose ball.  Squeeze a small drop of detergent on your hand and keep rolling the ball until it is covered in detergent and begins to lather.  Every now and then, drizzle hot water onto your ball, and keep rolling.  It’s the combination of the hot water, detergent and your rolling that makes wool fibres ‘lock’ together.  Your ball should start to feel more solid and you’ll find you can apply more pressure without crushing it.  Keep wrapping it in sheets of wool until you get the size you want.  Some people recommend dunking or drizzling your ball in cold water to ‘shock’ it and hasten the felting process.  I did find it helps, but it's not necessary.  When you are satisfied with the size, shape and firmness of your felted balls, rinse any excess soap off with water and rest on your tea towel.  Leave in a sunny spot (away from curious cats) to dry.

I found it was very important to begin very gently and gradually build up even pressure, otherwise you get cracks in the ball.  After making 2-3 balls, you will find your bowls water get very soap, after which you don’t even have to add detergent to your balls for them to felt.

I collected some acorn caps last week from a grand oak tree on my campus.  I’ve never noticed the tree before as it’s on my ‘scenic’ route and I used to always be in such a rush to get from one class to another.  I gathered a small handful of caps in my glasses case so they wouldn’t get crushed in my bag, and rinsed them in my leftover bowl of hot soapy water from felting the balls to clean off dirt.  I'll be hot-gluing them to the balls in time for the Autumn Equinox.

I definitely recommend this very tactile and therapeutic craft for anyone, perhaps we can learn together?