beeswax egg candle tutorial!

today i will share with you how to make this sweet smelling egg candle!
you will need:
eggs that have been blown out (tutorial at magic onions)
beeswax
wick (i used braided for 2-3" candles)
a long needle or a piece of thin, bendable wire
a small bit of clay
scissors
*melt your beeswax in a bain marie. this is what my set up looks like. i use an aluminum percolator that i found at the thrift shop for $1. the pan is from the thrift store, too. i use beeswax often and these two items live in a box of my beeswax supplies.
*thread your wick through your blown out eggshell. i used a needle to get it through the holes. you could also use a piece of thin, folded wire to thread it through. you want a bit of wick sticking out both ends.
*on the small end of your egg, cover the hole and the wick with clay. keeping your clay very moist will make this step much easier. you can use a little water to smooth out the edges and to ensure you have a good seal.
*place egg in carton with clay side down. i doubled my cartons while working to help soak up any wax spills.
*once your wax is melted, pour it into your egg.
*beeswax shrinks as it cools so you will need to top it off. you could tie your wick around a toothpick or something to hold it in place. i just adjusted mine as the wax began to harden and it worked out fine.
*allow your egg to cool for a considerable time. we left the house to run some errands while ours cooled. then, gently crack it open and begin to peel your shell away. note: if you smash your egg on the counter to break the shell, you will damage the beeswax inside!
most of the wax had shrunk and separated nicely from the shell making the task of peeling rather painless. we did have this problem spot where the shell stuck to the wax. we just kept picking away at it until we removed all of the shell. we were then able to wash off the white residue with soap and water.
*trim your wicks and find a stand for your bee-utiful egg!
notes and variations:

*you can use a blow dryer to warm your egg up and then smooth out any surface scratches or smudges.

*if you do not have a stand, you could make a flat bottom for your egg to sit on by touching the wide end of your egg to a warm pot on the stove. this will melt the wax down just a bit and give you a nice flat surface.

*the wooden stand above was bought at the craft store in the unfinished wood section.

*peel only half of the shell off for a fun, just cracked looked!

*decorate your finished egg with decorating or modeling beeswax.

have fun!!

leaf pounding

today we pounded leaves. i have been wanting to do this for some time. we often pound flowers and ferns in the spring and i wanted to see if we could make it work with the gorgeous fall foliage around us this time of year. the results were not as gratifying as i would have liked, especially for the kids, but we did enjoy moderate success with some of our selections.i cut muslin into triangles and rectangles on a fold so that they were double-sided. i used pinking shears to do so. we also needed our rubber mallets. they are our preferred foliage pounding tool though we have used regular hammers, too.
the leaves were selected and arranged between the folds of fabric. the top layer was then folded over onto the leaves sandwiching them in.
then the pounding begins! most of our leaves took some serious effort to transfer the color. you will know the color is transferring when you see the juices coming through the fabric. the juicest, freshest leaves make the nicest prints. here, the little red ones (no idea what these are but they came from a bright, bright bush) performed the best. japanese maples are excellent specimens for this project but we could not find any of those today.
opening up the fabric, we peeled away the crushed leaves to reveal the prints.
the inside of the panel, where the leaves where touching the fabric directly during pounding, becomes the outside of the piece. we then chose sticks from our yard to drape the fabric over. hemp cord was used to tie a hanger to the stick.
the children enjoyed this project, despite the effort needed for real results. i wish to make a banner with the triangle pieces i cut (in the first picture). only one of those turned out to my liking so far. i will gather more materials for experimenting and get back to pounding. i'll post pics when i am finished.

tutorial: wet felted ocean playmat

sienna loves wet felting playmats for her wee dolls, gnomes, fairies, and animals. in the past she has done many a lake, pond, and river playmat. when she received wee mermaids for solstice, she knew right away that a new playmat was in order....an ocean and beach scene! here's how we did it:

you will need:

wool roving in the colors of your choice
dish soap
bubble wrap or bamboo blinds
a pitcher or large cup

begin by spreading the fibers of your roving. this is an important step in the felting process! you don't want any clumps. pull it thin.

as you lay your fibers out on the bubble wrap, be sure to criss cross the layers. some strands go vertically, the next horizontally. this will aide in the felting process, too. also, if you are abutting two colors like we did here, be sure to overlap them a bit so that they can felt to one another more easily.

you need to add many more layers than you would think or you will end up with holes. you will have a big puffy cloud when you are ready to begin.

here is what ours looked like before we began the felting.jasper wanted to do one, too. here's his creative layout.next, fill your pitcher with a dash of dish soap (i don't believe that brand matters, but some folks swear by dawn for felting) and hot water. if you are doing this with children, be mindful of their threshold when preparing the water. carefully pour the water over the fibers wetting the entire surface.fold the bubble wrap carefully over the top, sandwiching the playmat in between.

at first, you will want to gently massage the wool through the bubble wrap. the idea here is to get the fibers to stick together before you start the vigorous felting.

you can lift up the plastic and check your progress. if you see that you have obvious holes or thin spots, now is a good time to add some more roving. when you see that the fibers are starting to stick together in one piece a bit, you can begin more vigorous action. sienna firmly agitated the wool through the plastic.rolling it up and smooshing it (technical term) under your weight is very helpful. encourage your child to put their body weight into it.jasper had his own techniques. ;) he even used a mallet! i wouldn't suggest it, though it did work out for him.

continue this action until firmly felted. it could take 15 minutes or so. add more soap and hot water as needed. you can even *flush* it with cold water in between. the change from hot to cold shocks the fibers and aids the felting process.when they were finished, i rinsed the mats well and put them in the dryer with some tennis balls. (it's true!) this firms them up a bit more and made the finished product a bit thicker. we only left them in for a few minutes and let them finish drying on their own in the sun.here's her finished mat!

here's jasper's. he says it is part of a dog. ??sienna wanted *four blue sea stars washing up on the shore*. so, i needle felted those on for her.

mermaids made by dannielle of princess nimble thimble. they are so well made and detailed!

the finished mat in action.i love that i can tuck the mermaids and some shells inside and roll it up. we are going on a long road trip next week and this will come in handy!

i had to add these last two pics as i found this after i had already started writing this post. she said the mermaid was admiring the sea star. so sweet!as soon as she received the mermaid couple, she went and found this wee wool baby from a story set of mine. here she has tucked the baby into a shell cradle. i never tire of the imagination and creativity that open ended toys provide!

a great way to do this with younger children is inside a ziploc baggie as described here. this is how we started a couple of years ago.

we hope you enjoy making your own playmats! we'd love to see them if you do!