Weekending

• Recovering from a bout of Winter bugs
• Watching trees sway in the rain
• Eating simple food
• Finding extra blankets
• Drinking Cinnamon Tea
• Leaving a mountain of laundry, to wait for another day.

Weekending with "Pumpkin Sunrise"

On seeking an Authentic Creative Voice.

"There is one thing in this world you must never forget to do.
Human beings come into this world to do particular work.
That work is their purpose, and each is specific to the person.
If you forget everything else and not this,
there's nothing to worry about.
If you remember everything else and forget your true work,
then you will have done nothing with your life."

- Rumi  (from The Soul of Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks)

The above quote found at a recently discovered gem of a blog, "Myth and Moor"
Terri Windling is a writer, author, publisher and artist who lives in beautiful Dorset.

Her recently published post on perfectionism and the creative process resonated with me deeply.
The concept of writing for one person in particular, rather than a crowd, felt like a revelation.

Practically speaking, at the moment, I have narrow margins of time and space with which to write.
I have found that writing in semi stream of consciousness mode makes good use of these small but precious increments.
However, this "approach" often means that other people's writing voices get caught up in the flow of my own.
The voices of friends, general internet commentary, books that I've been reading etc, end up mixing and merging with my own words and intentions.
There is certainly a difference between honouring the voice, feelings and paths of others and absorbing them whether emotionally or creatively.

The idea of writing (for or to) a particular person could very well help me to channel my own voice more definably.
I think this is something I was alluding to in my last post.

The idea of emitting my own frequency, rather than being imprinted on by others is something I've always found challenging.
I like to merge, empathize and reach out rather than stand out.
I've thought of it as a compassionate and modest way of being but it is also cowardly on many levels. It is a way of not fully embodying my life as I often defer to someone else.

Maybe it is because it can initially seem arrogant to assume your frequency has any importance or consequence.
I can't jostle, or strive to put my own stamp on anything whether physically or meta physically. There is too much responsibility involved with that and as a result too many consequences. It is not a game I want to be a part of.

However, I've come to wonder whether the idea of emitting our own frequency, by which I mean our own uniqueness, authenticity, truth, spirit, story, or all of the above, is actually the only truly valuable or lasting thing we can impart.
It is not based on the premise of wrangling control or seeking power, it is simply letting be what is. It is getting out of the way of the truth.

In the current climate everything has been reduced to commodity status. Even people have begun to brand themselves.
Ideas, opinions, products, and people all hustle for control, as they attempt to offer a vision for others to buy into either financially or ideologically.

The value of a currency is determined by the number of people invested in it.
We can invest our consciousness in anything and increase it's value.

A problem arises if our consciousnesses become conditioned to unquestioned collective norms and we absorb that which is not authentically true to ourselves.
When we invest in something such as a hierarchical system that undermines our authenticity and our spirits we contribute to the energy that is stifling us.

When this happens collectively en masse self serving, pyramid systems develop.
The many focus on one; the point at the top, and the structure solidifies.

But life can be more open, flowing and full than this. All it takes is enough people to believe that we can be true to ourselves without conflict. In fact it might be the only way to avoid it.

Our gift is our truth, our true voice and the resonate frequency it emits.
I hope to learn to use mine, carefully, honestly, humbly and a little more bravely.

 

Epiphany

I found the above quote
on the Angel Wings and Herb Tea Facebook page.

This year I hope to 

stand more steadily,

Barefoot on bare earth.

Feel a belonging to the country of my story

my native truth

my inner being.

I don't need to assimilate

Or unlearn my mother tongue

To understand the riddles of a new country.

I can speak my own language,

Sing my own poetry

and write my own story.

Simply, authentically, quietly my own.

Because that is the gift I was given

And the only one I can return

That will be of any worth at the end of the day

I hope only to stand on my own little wild scrap of earth

without fear or dismay

and connect fully and compassionately with others as they stand on theirs.

If only I may grow: firmer, simpler, quieter, warmer.

Dag Hammarskjold

 

 

Christingle {Weekending}

 {Weekending}

• Christingle

• Nativity

• Decorations

• Paper /string

• Tinsel

• Fire Roasted Chestnuts 

Joining "Habit of Being"

Puppet Making with Paper and Cloth

Inspired by this simply magical post by Rima Staines of the Hermitage, the older girls and I decided that making puppets would be our Summer project.

 However, it was a far more complex undertaking than I realised it would be.

It took from August to late November to finish our puppets in the end.

The girl's each had quite definite and ambitious designs in mind.

 I wanted to be able to help them to accomplish these without too much frustration so the puppets really ended up being collaborative efforts. 

I provided, technical support when threads needed threading and untangling and re-stitching.

They engaged, with guidance only in the processes that they could manage without help such as applying glue and paper to the heads and shoulders, cutting out the hands, whittling the sticks that hold the puppet's strings and stitching the fabric squares that made up the puppet's clothing.

We worked together on  painting  the faces and on stitching around the puppet's hands.

 

 This little man is named Thorfinn after the enchanting fairy tale by Vivian French and Jackie Morris "Singing to the Sun"

 His hands are made of wool filled cotton interlock.
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His gown and hat are made of two squares of cotton print fabric.

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His head and shoulders are molded out of papier mache.
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 His strings are made of hemp twine strung to two hand whittled pieces of wood, kindly donated by one of the trees in our village green.

He also  has a little bell sewn to the top of his cap of which he is very proud.

I wanted to create a puppet design that would be easy enough for the children to handle and manipulate. 

This meant the design had to be pretty simple, flexible and weightless. 

However, I also wanted them to easily express their puppet's character by manipulating it's movement.  

I think this was achieved by using large squares of flowing fabric for the puppet's gowns as they gave the arms a good reach and lots of flexibility.

Thorfinn also, actually has two strings threaded through his head. 

One comes out through the front and one pokes out of the  point of his cap.

Using two strings for the head like this, allows the puppeteer to direct the angle of the head with ease.

Thorfinn can be made to look down by pulling the thread that runs through the back of his head while slackening the the thread that pokes out from under the front of his cap.

 

This gives poor Thorfinn a rather melancholy air. 

But never fear! 

By tightening the front string and slackening the back one his joie de vivre soon returns.

The girls' whittled the wood and rubbed it with my homemade beeswax salve.
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His hair is made of Merino wool roving and stuck into place using a non toxic craft glue. 

I used my longest, scariest doll-making needle to stitch the strings through his head and cap before gluing his cap to his hair line with more copious amounts of  craft glue.

Florence, as ever unmoved by the general chaos of her household.
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 Matilda and I worked on this elegant character. Her name is Lady Elspeth Barley.

Boo's creation is simply magical. He is a Celestial Bird Boy!

Here is poor Thorfinn looking a wee bit undone. 

You can see how we shaped the head, neck and shoulders from this picture. 

To paint the faces we made up a large batch of skin tone in acrylic; One pale, one cool and one slightly warmer in tone for shading. 

We applied the skin tones and waited for them to dry thoroughly before painting the facial details and sticking on the hair.

To make the basic head and neck structure, we scrunched up a sheet of newspaper in to a ball, leaving enough to twist a sketchy neck and shoulder shape with the same sheet to avoid having to stick pieces together.

We molded the face by sticking pieces of ripped up newspaper onto the structure with PVA glue.

The  bodies were made by placing two pieces of fabric right sides together and stitching all the way around leaving gaps along the top and on the top two corners for the head and hands to fit through and be stitched in place.

On a roll of sorts I decided to use a similar process to create some cloth puppets using the Waldorf method for molding their heads. 

It was certainly easier to thread twine through a wool filled head than a paper filled one!

More inspiration

  The video above describes beautifully why puppets and puppetry helps children connect with their imaginations.

I love the simplicity of this Waldorf style Puppet play using marionette style dolls.