The daylight fast is dwindling
My little lamp needs kindling
Let your beams shine far
Into the dark night
Little lantern guard me
With your precious light
We interrupt our regularly scheduled WIP Wednesday post to wish you all a wonderful and peaceful Martinmas!
The girls and I have been preparing since Monday, reading the story of St.Martin and boxing up some warm clothes to donate to the homeless. I actually wish we were doing more 'charity wise' but it just snuck up on me this year so I didn't have a lot of time to plan.
Then we started on our lanterns. We did 2 different kinds this year.
We made our first by just simply decorating a glass jar with tissue paper and wheat glue. K had a lot of fun with that one. We decided to keep that one on our table as our meal candle since glass and little ones walking on concrete don't really go well together!
Then on Tuesday we started a lantern out of a painting. This is the lantern K will carry on our lantern walk. K painted some paper using the wet on wet painting technique, then we let it dry. *A note on paper for wet on wet painting. Make sure you buy the good thick paper. We bought some thinner wet on wet painting paper for this project and it didn't hold up very well and also made the paint colors more muted. We learned our mistake!*
I went over her painting with a light coat of oil last night and this morning we are going to assemble the lantern so it is all ready for our lantern walk tonight. We don't know of any public lantern walks happening around here so the girls and I will walk around our neighborhood after the sun sets. It feels a bit strange because this is our first year not celebrating Martinmas with our dear friend Tiffeni. We miss her so much! On that note, I thought I'd share a few moments from the last 2 years here and here (the last one was before I made this blog public. How funny!).
A couple of our Martinmas pictures on our nature table. We have others throughout the house.
Wishing you all warmth and moments of introspection during this special time!
19 comments:
I *LOVE* your jar lantern! I think we might make one of those just because! I had really hoped for a nice Martinmas celebration this year (it would be our first), but with the kids being sick I just didn't have the prep time I needed. We are telling the story though, but I think that's going to be it for this year. Next year I know to start early!! :) Have a wonderful day.
~Mackenzie
Happy Martinmas to your family Nicole! We'll be making lanterns, just like yours, this afternoon for our first Martinmas celebration. ;)
Beautiful! I love your lanterns!
Oh, and I love that painting board that you have, too. It looks like the paint holders are attached to the board? Or are they just close beside it?
Thanks for sharing! I always feel so inspired when I visit your blog.
Best Wishes,
so beautiful...we are making our first lanterns today. we've never celebrated before so this will be our first. we are really excited..;)
xoxo
Nicole -- we tried wet on wet recently and discovered the very same thing :) Muddy paint and dissolving paper. Can you share what type of paint you're using and how you go about mixing/ dissolving?
Happy Martinmas! Such a beautiful way to celebrate, I love that you are donating warm clothing to those in need, what a wonderful lesson for your children.
Tilly - Thank you! I am so sorry your kids are sick! I am sending them healing vibes :) I bet they would love making the jar lantern.
Joy - I can't wait to see the pics!
Kara - Thank you for your kind words! The painting board is from Three Sisters Toys (online) and the jar holder is from Mercurius. It would be nice if it was attached so it wouldn't move all over the place!
Cat - Thank you! I hope you guys have a fun Martinmas! Please post about it on your blog ;)
Boatbaby - Hey! :) The paper I used for the lantern that really didn't work well fwad from here: http://www.threesisterstoys.com/p-525-painting-paper.aspx
BUT the good paper I used to buy from my friend Tiffeni was from waldorfsupplies.com It's a thick hemp paper, I will check with her again about which one exactly it was. I need to order more, too :)
As for the paint we use either the stockmar or this: http://www.waldorfsupplies.com/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/psstone/store/agora.cgi?product=Painting&xm=on
both are equally wonderful. I mix our paint by eye but I usually fill up our paint jars about half way with way then add maybe 4 tsps of paint... I think. If the paint still looks to watered down or drab I add more. But the paper really seems to be the key. We painted some pictures after we did the lantern and we used the thicker paper for them- HUGE difference! Eeeek! I also found that the paper needs to soak for at least 20 mins.
Ok, that was a lot :p Did that help at all?
May I ask where you found those frames? I would love some for my home. They are really beautiful.
I haven't been here to read for quite awhile! (I've had to do some catching up).
The lanterns are going to be beautiful all lit up and I love the little nature table you did with your girls.
have a great day!
I love this project. I am so excited to have found your blog, and just when my 9 year old was asking for an art project to do:) I might even try this with my Faith Formation class. Thank you for sharing!
Happy Martinmas! Your candle jars are wonderful, and it looks like you will all enjoy a beautiful celebration
Happy Martinmas Nicole! I saw that Cederwood held their Martinmas walk last night - but I wasn't sure if it was open to the public or not. I think we'll attempt this celebration next year. Tonight we'll just simply light a star lantern in our home.
I think I must say it about each celebration but Martinmas is certainly a favorite! I agree about the quality of paper and soak time... I would love to know more about how you constructed your paper lanterns. We have made the glass and can variety.
Beautiful, beautiful lanterns. I want to make some, and I think I will, with my little boy, later this cold and dreary day. I love the gorgeous little waldorfy drawings you have collected. They make me want to go draw right now. Beth
happy martinmas to you too!
the lanterns are lovely.
love the idea of sharing warmth with others. you have such a kind soul, friend.
peace,
hillary
I love the postcards. May I ask who the artist is or where I can find them? It seems like ya'll have a lovely day!
May I ask who the artist is for the postcards? Or where I can find them? They are lovely! You always find the best cards :)
Thank you for sharing your celebration with us. We made paper lanterns and had a walk with friends. Now I feel like I want to keep on making more lanterns!
Apron Thrift Girl - They are from Nova Natural :)
Lisa@Life with 4 - Welcome back! Thank you. I hope you had a great day as well!
Kara - You're welcome! Thank you for visiting!
Heather - Thank you! I hope you had a great one, too!
Simple Mama - Yeah, I wasn't sure about that either. I didn't want to 'crash the party' :p
Gardenmama - It is a special time, isn't it?! I was going to post instructions on how we made K's lantern but then I saw Grace posted a tutorial here: http://uncommongrace.typepad.com/uncommongrace/2009/11/our-martinmas-and-lantern-tutorial.html
HTH! I know anything you touch turns to gold so I look forward to seeing what you create!
Beth - Thank you! I hope you were able to make some lanterns with your son :)
Hillary - Thank you, as do you!!
Elizabeth - I was given the postcard of the children on the walk but the illustration is from the 'herbst' book - http://www.amazon.com/Herbst-Eva-Maria-Ott-Heidmann/dp/3825170101
I bought the other postcard from Kinderhaus.
Renee- Thank you! Sounds like a wonderful evening! Off to see if you posted pics!!
Thank you again, everyone!!
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