Western European crafts, part 1

Honestly, I keep meaning to take pictures of us actually working on the crafts that we've been doing to complement our Western European cultural block. But I get so caught up in the craft itself, I can't seem to remember taking photos until after the kids have cleared out! But here's the remnants of a recent Quilling craft lead by my friend T, which all the kids (my two and T's daughter D) really seemed to enjoy, as did we adults.


Here's the creations from our first 'try it' day of quilling. J's picture is on top, of a campfire (he says the dark coil above the fire represents the dark night). Zoo Boy's is beneath J's, and is just a sample of the different types of coils and folds that T taught us to make.









For our formal quilling project, T printed out partial copies of St. Francis's "Canticle of the Sun" poem, and the kids created quilled suns above them. J's is on the left, Zoo Boy's on the right (I love his depiction of "Brother Sun"!). The boys were SO thrilled to be working with a poem that St. Francis himself wrote, and these are now hanging in an honored place in our house.

The boys and I also worked at home on a few projects -- here is some mosaic votive holders we made (zoo boy's is on the left, J's in the middle, mine on the right). This craft took several days to complete, but by the time we got to the grouting stage, Zoo Boy declared it "really cool".

Another "really cool" (according to the boys) yet really simple craft was coloring these "stained glass" pages, which now hang on our sliding door, brightening our dining room.

There will be more crafts to share before we finally leave this culture and move on to Western Africa -- stay tuned!