Rainbow Cards and Name Initials

It was Great-Grandma's birthday, she isn't feeling well

so we thought we would cheer her up by making her these lovely watercolour rainbow cards.

Above illustrates different ages of development, 4 years, 2 years and 30 something years!!!

It's the first time we have painted the colours in the correct order. 

I was inspired to do so by reading about Goethe's theory of colour on  Moonbeam and Applesauce.

Check her gnomes out!

It was a lot of fun ... they wanted to continue.

We made rainbow initials from their names.

They are so beautiful, so colourful they have gone on our fireplace for a while.

Big Seed's "etheric" watercolour painting...it's such a shame to waste the made up watercolour...

he likes to continue until it's all gone.

I know it's not proper Waldorf to do this kind of thing so early ( or correct me if I am wrong)

but I let him lead the way.

In the next post I will be posting the angels we made as gifts.

What inspires your watercolour sessions?

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India Topic Craft # 4 - Hot Watercolours

Still keeping with our India Unit , we used the books we had and

focussed on Hot Colours.

I asked Big Seed to choose the watercolours that were hot.

With those we did some wet-on-wet painting with watercolours and a pipette.

This is Little Seed's attempt. He couldn't get the hang of the pipette

and kept banging it on the paper, then I gave him a brush.

We will do this with hot pastels next.

The options are endless.

Big seed wanted to continue with a paintbrush...free rein.

Check out this link for fantastic drip art using the Indian Flag as inspiration.

Looks great fun!

Check out the other posts in this unit at the side bar

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Gnomes, Watercolours and Diamonds

Our Autumn Gnomes have arrived from Rjabinnik at Etsy.

I absolutely adore these creatures, they are so beautiful!

The gnomes asked Big Seed to make them an Autumn watercolour, so he did.

He used the pipette technique he is fond of.

Then the gnomes wanted to show us a secret place in the garden,

some real Autumn treasures...

Tiny dewdrops all around these Lady's Mantle leaves

sparkling like real diamonds.

It was such a surprise to see on our wander round the garden.

I have had this in the garden for years and never noticed this before.

What magic will you see tomorrow in unexpected places?

Watercolours # 3 : Inspired by the rain

The school summer holidays have started and so has the rain...of course!

Rain, rain, rain...so we just rolled with it.

We took some proper watercolour paper and dabbed it all over

with watercolour tube paints, straight from the tube itself.

Then we laid it on a wire cake rack and placed this on the step in the rain and watched

the colours change and merge together.

Big Seed was really absorbed watching it.

He got really excited going in and out of the rain to check on it constantly.

Here is the finished picture.

Bare feet on the wet steps...a new exciting sensation.
He loved this!
I had to put a towel down by the door as he kept going in and out enjoying himself.

 I had to extend this quickly...so we used felt tips on kitchen towel in the rain.

Then we reached a real milestone...Big Seed spontaneously came up with an art idea
and got to work on it without any assistance from me.
He got some paper and made lots of dots with a green pencil,
"This is raindrops. This is the rain!"

Then he cut it out and stuck it on the cupboard door.
As the weather changes he now feels the need to draw it and hang it on his washing line...  ( oh yes, the washing line is still going strong!)
...we have a sun, grey and white clouds and a moon.

For me this is the most significant art work he has ever done...all by himself, for himself.

Watercolours # 2 : Mixing Colours With Pipettes

I love watching Big Seed use watercolours...and this was so fun I just had to have a go...

We wet the paper both sides with water and a sponge.

We concentrated on blue and yellow making green.

I put these 2 colours in the palette and used 2 separate pipettes.

Once the paper is ready just let the drops explode...

I love the way the edges fray.

I did this first to demonstrate how to drop the paint and commentated on how the drops blurred into each other.

We talked about how green is formed, and how the colours overlapped.

I then left this to dry and it all blurred together so there were no white areas of paper showing.

I used it for my Father's Day card.

Big Seed found the pipette a bit tricky at first.

He sucked up a lot of paint and made lots of dramatic splats.

He said they were "his pancakes!"

I love the bottom right hand side. Its gorgeous.

And just like with a brush, like it says in the book we are using,

young children feel the need to cover the entire paper and use up all the paint.

I had to fill the palette up again he was enjoying so much!

.

If you cut out a huge circle, wouldn't this make a great planet?

Or a sea background?

It's really pretty on our wall just as it is...

Starting with Watercolours

Painting with watercolours seems to be a core part of Steiner creativity

so I thought we would give it a go.

Big Seed did a lovely picture a long time ago at Steiner Playgroup,

it was the first painting to go on the wall.

I was 11 years old the last time I had a go...it wasn't great, I didn't have a clue!

I am using this as a starting point.

I bought a pad of watercolour paper.

It is quite expensive and this is probably why mainstream schools don't do watercolours,

however the colours and paintings are so beautiful it's worth it.

If anyone knows where to get cheaper paper in the UK please let me know.

The book says to wet the paper with a sponge.

I used my marble bread board to put it on.

Wet both sides so the edges don't curl up as in the picture!

The book says to use tubes of watercolour to mix with water in a palette.

Just opening the box is exciting!

Keep it simple to start.

For children under 3's use just one colour.

Big Seed used the 3 primary colours today.

This palette is great and doubles as a sorting and counting tray!

With the classical music on, Big Seed got going.

He LOVED this, it is so therapeutic.

Is it because the edges blur and dance around?

I just sat and watched him.

"OK, I'm done," he said, "Can I do another one?"

Yes, but the baby needed a feed!!

He couldn't wait so...

He emptied the palette completely and just painted on top,

so it changed into a different picture.

I narrated for him as the book suggests, ie blue wants his friend red to come along to his party, etc

He liked this and this encouraged him to keep going.

So where had red gone?

"Oh, he is under the blue there."

And he's only just begun.