I have to begin with a huge THANK YOU! This webinar raised $162USD for Educateurs San Frontieres.
To explain: the Zoom webinar platform costs me $155 per month - which is effectively $155 per webinar. Whilst I really wanted the webinar to be free, I did invite donations from those who were able to help cover the cost and promised to give any extra money to Educateurs Sans Frontieres. You guys were incredibly generous with your contributions - so much so that I have been able to pass on $162. It makes me so happy to think that not only are we all going to be doing more handwork with our students, we have also been able to contribute to an incredible cause - thank you so much!
Webinar Recording
For those who missed the Wet Felting In Cosmic Education webinar, or didn't miss it but would like to watch it again with the pause function, here is the recording:
I threw quite a lot of information at you in the webinar so I thought I'd collect some of it together here for easier reference.
Materials
In the basket on my shelf I keep:
bubble wrap
mesh fabric/ netting
sushi mats
plastic container
sponges
small grater
soap (or keep it by the sink)
pieces of floor vinyl for resists (but that's a story for another day.)
You also need towels, plastic sheets to protect the table, wool roving.
I buy my roving from Talley Ho in New Zealand. They post internationally and are very reasonably priced. I buy the natural coloured roving for teaching spinning and the dyed Romney for felting. If you are just buying for one class, a 'Lucky Dip' bag is perfect. You'll have enough wool for everyone to make a few balls and a picture or two. I'm not on any kind of commission from Talley Ho but if you mention that I recommended them, they will know what you are using the wool for and may be better able to meet your needs. (They also throw some fun extras in with my orders occasionally so we want to encourage that!)
Fibre Picture
Here is the picture of different fibres under a microscope. Of course it would be better if children could look at actual samples under an actual microscope.
Lessons
Here is the link to the Story of the History of Felt.
Here is the full write up of the felt balls lesson.
Here is the lesson on adding layers to your felt balls.
Big Work
Just for fun, here are few pictures of the felt rugs our students made for the Peace Tent on our Fundamental Human Needs Camp. (Yes, that is an enormous box of roving, I curate it for the whole school, this will last for years!)
I'd love to know how felting goes in you environments. Please let me know in the comments section below, on the Montessori Handwork Facebook page or in the Montessori Handwork Threads Facebook group.
