16* - Sterne im weißen Dezember

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Es ist mir eine Freude mich auch dieses Jahr an Ellens Kreativem Adventskalender zu beteiligen.
Ellen hat die Gabe Menschen zusammenzuführen und aus ihren mittlerweile 7 vorherigen Kreativtagen sind so manche Verbindungen entstanden.
Vielen Dank, liebe Ellen.

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Zuerst wollte ich im Gegensatz zum letzten Motto "Weiße Weihnacht" einen richtig bunten Beitrag verfassen, zumal ich dieses Jahr die Weihnachtsferien wieder einmal im eher bunten Spanien verbringen werde.

Doch dieser zauberhafte Dezember lockte mich Schneeliebhaberin doch wieder zu weißen Werken und Photos und es gibt bei mir sozusagen 'mehr vom Gleichen'.

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Für eine Schulklasse überlegte ich mir neuen Fensterschmuck. Gerne verbinde ich Fadenarbeiten mit Papier.

Jede Sternschablone mit einer ungeraden Zahl von Zacken kann genommen werden. Durch Faltungen findet sich die Mitte und den auszuschneidenden Mittelkreis kann man so symetrisch mit dem Zirkel zeichnen.

Die Löcher entstanden wie immer bei mir mit Hilfe einer Prickelnadel auf einer Filzunterlage. Die Fäden bestehen aus einfachem Baumwollgarn. Ich selber würde Goldgarn nehmen, doch dieses räppelt in kleinen Händen leicht zu schnell auf und schafft unnötigen Frust.

Je nach Vermögen und Geschmack 'stickten' die Schüler Perlen in die Löcher oder verzierten ihren Stern mit Goldstiften, Goldglitter und ausgestanzten goldenen, kleinen Motiven.

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Dank Suschnas Beitrag zum Kreativen Adventskalender habe ich meine Weihnachtsplanungen bereits für nächstes Jahr fertig. Jetzt haben wir erst einmal die ausgebrannten Teelichter gesammelt.

Mich lockte es herauszufinden, ob das mit den Fäden auch in den geprickelten Alusternchen funktioniert.

Ja, es geht, aber es ist eine recht fragile Angelegenheit. Den oberen Stern 'webte' ich mit chicem metallischen Stickgarn, doch beim unteren wechselte ich zum Baumwollgarn. Angesicht der Fummelei mit dem kaum verzwirnten Stickgarn war ich kurz vorm Verknüllen des Sterns, der doch gar nichts dafür konnte.

Der größere Stern entstand aus einem etwas höheren Teelicht. Ausprobieren werde ich auch Tartex-Döschen und ähnliches.

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Die Anregung zu meiner Farbwahl stammt von einem meiner zahlreichen Dezember-Spaziergänge als ich gezielt nach Farbe im Nebel-Weiß Ausschau hielt. Mag es nun Schmiererei auf der Bank sein, in dem Moment zauberte mir dieses ein Lächeln ins Gesicht.

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Jetzt wünsche ich allen,
egal wo auf dieser schönen Welt,
eine gute und friedvolle Zeit.

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Mein 1. Kreativtag "La vie en rose"
Mein 2. Kreativtag "Summertime"
Mein 3. Kreativtag "Glanz und Gloria"
Mein 4. Kreativtag "Zeig mir dein Grün"
Mein 5. Kreativtag "Sweet nothings"
Mein 6. Kreativtag "White Winter"
Mein 7. Kreativtag "Fernweh"

Corner View ::: School ::: in Ladakh

After summer break I never really landed in blogland. Also Corner View's first topic "school" cried for skipping.
I'm a teacher and the German school politic is so crazy, I'm not very eager to talk school nowadays. From this summer in Hamburg elementary schools classes on craft, wood, sewing are almost cancelled and on art very reduced. And this is just a minor (though not in my eyes) crazyness.

Thanks to Ian from An Englishman Abroad memories came back to my most exciting teaching experience.

While spending time in the Himalaya in 2004 a friend of mine introduced me to Dr. Tsering Palmo and her Ladakh Nun Association.

Ladakh is the most northern region of the huge state of India. Most parts have the Hindi religion. Ladakh on the other hand is characterized by the Tibetean Buddhism.
The small city of Leh is the capital.

Traditionally most of Ladakhs familiys (and Tibetean at least in former times) send at least one boy to a monastery (called "gompa") to become a monk and get educated. The girls stay home, not being able to read or write and so on.

Dr. Pelmo seeks educations for the girls as well and their chance to study and practice the Dharma (Buddhist wisdom).
She also undertakes the labor of spreading information about health and so on in the tiny villages all over the vast country. Often those villages are hard to reach, only by foot with a duration of days.

During my revisit in 2005 Dr. Pelmo informed me that those were the weeks where she gathered young nuns from those villages. They get English lessons by a native speaker Lady, intense Dharma studies and more.

Dr. Pelmo asked me if I could help out somehow, not knowing that I'm a teacher.
So I offered what I can and organized 3 afternoons of paper craft. My purpose was giving fun to the girls and women and more important, enable them to teach this to the children of kindergarden age in their villages. Because this is what they will be doing.

Folding boxes, hats and ships is not one of the skills to survive, but for sure it lays traces in the brain for further education in all senses.

For teaching I needed all my senses. English was the common language, but not spoken by all.
The candle was not for a cozy atmosphere (with paper around!) but electricity was broken, as it happened every day for some minutes or hours.

Complete concentration.

My adventure was to get the supplies. There is no MacPaper.
This color orgy of pink and yellow for sure was not my fav choice but you use what you get.

The young women mostly enjoyed working the ships. In the middle of the desert part of the Himalaya. I told them storys of Hamburg and the harbour.
Cultur exchange :-)
Proudly the wrote their own name and the name of their villages on the flags.

For the lotus blossoms I got napkins from my daily restaurant. Your eyes might be big by now.
German chocolate Leh! That was the treat for the last day.

With a lot of labor and a lot of love the home of Leh's nuns gets nicer each year (picture from 2005).

Leh is situated some hundreds of meters higher. Down I rode my bicycle. Up I got a lift with the 'school bus', that took the nuns to the Temple for religious studys. The boy just put my bike on the roof.

:::As always money is always appreciated.
If you want to offer something, feel free to follow the first link to Dr. Pelmos page or go to this Dutch site, also in English and German. :::

Little kitten also enjoying the class :-)

Thanks for reading the long post and following me to a very special place on this beautiful earth.



Jane is turning over the hosting of Corner View to other participants. Go to her post for further information.

Hasiger Sonnabend

Einige Kolleginnen lesen hier, einige Leserinnen sind gerne mit ihren Kindern kreativ.
Gestern hatte ich das Glück, an einer herrlichen Fortbildung im Bereich Kunst teilnehmen zu können.

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This pictures are taken from yesterdays class in childrens art. I was very happy to attend. Some of my readers are also teachers so I share my experiences here.

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Man nehme eine Kartoffel ...teilt sie ...schnitzt ein Grasbüschel.
Beim ersten Schnitt dachte ich , puuuh, ist das schwer, kann ich nicht. Doch schnell hatte ich den Trick raus.
Die Fortbildnerin meinte, dass Erwachsene sich eher in die Finger schneiden würden als Kinder. Habt ihr Erfahrungen?

Das Blatt wird in verschiedenen Grüntönen bestempelt, von Rand zu Rand.
Aus der zweiten Kartoffelhälfte entsteht Hasi.

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Cut a potato in halfes. Craft out gras, use different shades of green and stamp from edge to edge.
The rabbit is cut out of the second potato half.

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So kann eine ganze Hasi-Wiese entstehen.

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rabbit meadow

Hasi noch in sehr roher Form.
Dünneres Papier, gerne auch einfach Zeitung, in Form gebracht, mit Tesa-Krepp etwas fixiert.

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Crush paper, newspaper will work well. Fix it with tape.

Hasis in Stücken aus Gipsbinden gebadet.
Billiger würde es mit Zeitungspapier in Tapetenkleister getunkt gehen.

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Cover the rabbit with cast material cut in pieces. Will also work with newspaper pieces bathed in wallpaper paste.

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Glückliche Hasen.
Ich bin von der Vielfalt begeistert.

Mein Hasi kriegt ein Extra-Post. Er ist so groß geworden, dass keine Zeit mehr war, ihn ganz fertig anzumalen.

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My rabbit (named Hasi) will get an extra post. He is so big, there was not enough time for finish the painting.

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my new old moleskine planner

before after

I'm a big fan of the plain moleskines for years. I carry a small black one as my diary and notebook where ever I am. This year I also went for a bigger one serving as my school planner. In a crazy spur of moment I choose red, although it's not my color at all and doesn't match with my bags or cloths. When I discovered Hannas tutorial it took me a while but than I realized, that this is the way to go.
Because the year is already on the decline there was not much to go wrong. Those remaining only 3 month I could easily live with a ruined notebook if it wouldn't work out.
What a chance just to try and play with motives, paper and glue. It was my first time crafting like this.
The overall results really makes me very happy. The topic matches very much me as well as the colors match my daily bags.

What does not satisfy me are the bubbles that came to life after I covered the collage with modge podge.
And although I applied modge podge as a finish two times it is not durable enough. Already the paper has some teared off spots after one day of using it.
Any suggestions for improvement are more than welcome.

In case you also want to start something like this: Have fun! It's a really enjoyable project for a (rainy) afternoon.

All the paper came from a magazine. For my english readers it says on the front side "not allowed to travel". Remember it's my work planner. ;-) The letters on the bottom say "I wish ...".
On the back side comes the "Have a good trip" for ME and hopefully for WE.

Glückwunschkarte

After some dark weeks in which I cheered myself up with all the flower photos I'm very happy now.
My mind is indulging in creative ideas; mentally I plan thousandandone projects.
My plans for summer travel are finally all settled. Looking back I have such a wonderful life being able to travel all over, but most of the time arranging it's not as easy as it might look even for me after a while.

This summer I will visit an island far away with a different culture and there are many, many impressions waiting for me. For once it will be a trip without my bicycle, my climbing shoes and a rope.
I was wondering what to take to use the time for my interests. Into my mind crept journaling. I always write diary, sometimes more, sometimes less. Some words in my moleskine, some snippets glued beside.
Right now I'm very inspired to color pages, to experiment much freer than I normally do with different kind of media.
Because I won't be able to buy supply on the road and it has to be small I have an excuse to try out a bit beforehand - even if my time is very limited right now.

Before work this morning I made a Greeting Card for my friend and collegue. I brought for her a beautiful candle from an Austrian manufacture when I was there in May. I forgotten to take a photo, what a pity. The colors were gorgious: red and yellow in a flat brick floating into each other.

apple blossoms, mother's day and travel plans

In North Germany we experience the most beautiful weather for quite a while already. I feel like a new person: open, awake even with a lack of sleep. Endless admiration for the wonders of nature. Everything is in blossom at once. All little birds leave their nests, birds singing their operas while I type this in the early sunshine. Beautiful light in my little house with the sun rising in an absolute cloud free sky. (For some folks this might be weather like each day, but for sure not for us.)


Last weekend was long thanks to the 1st of May holiday. Instead of driving for climbing I stayed home in my garden that is only beautiful and sunny for 2 to 3 months per year. Got the yard ready after winter. Worked a lot in the house with decluttering and cleaning. Worked even more for the job.
Enjoyed doing yoga each day outside (*love*), taking quality naps, eating fresh asparagus everyday (season has just started *yummy* and I live in asparagus-country) , some bicycle rides near sunset time. Did a lot of planing for the coming vacations.

In the meantime the birds are singing their good night songs. The blackbirds song is so beautiful.
This afternoon was spent with packing - fixing my ski between the bikes on top of the car and more. Yes, my ski!
Till yesterday afternoon I thought I was going to my beloved South of France to climb the cracks on the oceanside. But the weather is quite bad in the parts of Europe that are normally the destination to escape the Northern grey. But nope, not now. Would be ridiculous to leave this fine sun for rain. And climbing would really not be recommended in uncertain weather.
After some minutes of discussion and the conclusion to go rock climbing in the Bavarian Alps all up the sudden sprang up the idea for a high Austrian mountain. Thanks to internet we got all information needed in less than an hour. Perfect ski tour conditions. But F. does not ski. Even that might not be a problem, because possible we can rent snow shoes for him. My ski stuff was already packed away in my mothers house, so F. went there while I worked this morning. The car is packed with the same thousand of sacks, bags and boxes as if we would travel 6 weeks or months - and we only have a short week, but we are prepared for every possibility. I wonder what we end up finally doing. Off we go to Austria very early in the morning.

This is what some of my student created this year for Mother's Day.
The cover of the booklets is crinkled cardboard. The little pink hearts are felt prepped with fuse by me. The children had to make their own template and then cut it out from the felt.
For most of the children it was one of their first experiences with the hot iron to glue them on. The binding we practised before on a big cardboard with thick waste yarn I have in my cupboard for this purpose. My heart is always touched when I see this expression of love.

With this picture of one of the fantastic recent sun rises seen from my bedroom I say good-bye for a couple of days. Enjoy your May!

Good-bye for this year

I wish to all my readers and especially to the people with whom there is a deeper contact with me via comment, email or personal meeting a wonderful Christmas time and a very Happy New Year.
I will spent those special weeks down at the very most south-western point of Europe hopefully in the so much needed sun. My days will be filled with climbing, walking on the beaches and in the hills and discovering some of the Andalusian attractions. Hopefully the last will include fabric, special yarn and other craft shops. The nights will be long. Depending on where I will spent them its either time to curl up in my cozy sleeping bag for a lot of reading (if I don't fall asleep) or knitting on a Christmas present. I also take with me a little hand sewing project.



This year my presents were all packed in little modular origami boxes. The pattern is from Tomoko Fuse. Every once in a while my brain wants to solve the riddles of origami patterns and my fingers itch to touch and fold paper.



I filled up the boxes with Roibush Tea and dark chocolade plus something extra depending on the person. Essence for the oil burner, very good soap from France, a tiny knitted swatch as a teaser for fingerless gloves made of Hundertwasser yarn, one Svarowsky bead as a teaser for a bead-ball.



I love the paper from the background. It was the wrapping paper of a present a friend of mine got - and he was throwing it away!!!!



My mother got her box with a matching bouquet of different white flowers.

Again, have a good time, stay or become healthy!

May all sentient beings have happiness and its causes,
May all sentient beings be free of suffering and its causes,
May all sentient beings never be separated from bliss without suffering,
May all sentient beings be in equanimity, free of bias, attachment and anger.

This is what my 4th-graders crafted this year for Christmas

poinsettia stars in wood-working class




English poems written on white paper, sewed together with a cover of thick yellow cardboard and an inlay of opac transparent paper in english/art-lesson, embellished with some beads *of course ;-)*

simple window decoration worked with same opal transparent paper


Without photo are the 3-dimensional star pendants made in geometry class, learing to construct triangles with compass and ruler.