Two weekends ago we got to enjoy the Sacramento Waldorf School Harvest Faire and Children’s Festival. Every year I am struck by the amount of time and devotion our school community gives to this event. And their love and attention to detail is evident everywhere—in every nook and corner there is great beauty and intention. Here are a just a few beautiful scenes I caught on camera.
I think I’ll just let the photos speak for me.
Near the end of the day of the Harvest Faire, Ian was working in the candle dipping room and Lucas was making a candle. Asher and I got to wander a bit through the school farm.
We visited the sheep, llama, chickens, cow, and pony. We watched the American River tumble by where the sheep were grazing.
It was pretty rainy at this point, but the farm didn’t mind so neither did we. We looked at the beautiful crops and flowers growing, and the artwork that graces the fields.
We also wandered back through the school, where the Faire was winding up. Here is the fruit of the paper marbling booth, hanging out to dry. Lucas and Daddy got to do this as their last activity of the day. Aren’t they beautiful? We have to pick Lucas’s paper up at the school office since it was too wet to take home that day.
Here is a pot that the potter threw during a demonstration earlier in the day. There was a huge crowd of children and parents watching him work.
Some more scenes from our day: the xylophone and candle used during the puppet show; morning glories growing on the farm; and one shot from the horse vaulting demonstration.
This is the mermaid candle decoration I mentioned in my last post. This little girl was very patient to make such a tiny, intricate design.
This boy is making walnut-shell sailboats.
Lucas’s teacher, Ms. D, made this Welcome chalk drawing.
I wish I had photos of Lucas and X shooting bows, but alas I was elsewhere while they were doing that. All in all, it was a perfect day, lacking only blue skies. When we got home we were all exhausted and fulfilled.
I made a few other goodies for the Waldorf school’s Harvest Faire this Saturday. The mice and gnomes are intended for the Children’s Store, which is a shop full of small treasures and handmade lovlies intended to fit a child’s budget. Only children younger than about 10 are allowed to shop there and I believe the highest price they would pay is $2. I’m told my needle-felted mice have been a big hit in years past.
I left the knitted cat in the basket for the Country Store, which is open to shopping adults and sells crafts and handmade items of all types. I hear my friends’ honey will be sold there this year and I’m hoping to snag some.
This is my best work to date. I made this needle-felted Harvest Mother as a donation for our school’s Country Store fundraiser, part of Sacramento Waldorf School’s Harvest Faire, which is being held this Saturday, October 23. Now that’s she’s done, I’m kind of sorry to have to give her up. She took about four hours to make, spread over several evenings. She is about 9 inches tall and the widest part of her skirt is about 7 inches across.
I tried to gently stripe the colors to suggest agricultural rows. I tried to suggest that from her body flows all good things: crops of pumpkins, cabbages, and greens. I tried to use colors that bring to mind dried-up summer grains and tired fields ready for resting. I tried to suggest that she is the goddess of foods gathered in and the growing foods that will nourish us in time, in a never-ending cycle. I hope you can see the wind in her hair.
I admit, that’s a lot to suggest with a bunch of fluff!
It’s amazing what a little needle can do! She is holding a cornucopia in her arms, can you tell?
These are two details of her earthy skirt, with various crops growing on it. I love the pumpkin vines the most. I would have loved to make grapes and wheat, but I couldn’t seem to make the wool cooperate in that way for superfine details.
I’m ridiculously proud of this doll! I don’t really want to give her up, but she is going for a good cause. I just hope they sell her for a decent amount and that the person who buys her loves her as much as I do.
