TO WEAVE IS A PLEASURE

All people of any age or condition can exercise the art of weaving. To weave has many benefits as it has a relaxing effect, exercises the imagination, increases our creativity, promotes fine motor skills and helps minimize the effects of osteoarthritis and also reduces anxiety and depression. Weaving, perseverance, creativity, and concentration develops, among other skills. Knit exercise both hemispheres of the brain. Repetitive movements to be made, they strengthen coordination. This activity allows to pause in our lifestyle, which in addition to reducing stress, and therefore facilitate we order our thoughts, encourages effort, patience and discipline to complete something started by ourselves.

The children when are very young can weave with fingers using a simple wooden loom like we have in Coscoja Workshop. It also comes equipped with a shuttle needle for those who are already older and have practice and with a pack of colored wool.

The technique for making a loom is quite simple. Begin by placing the warp with a thick cotton yarn or the like, alternately passing through slots in the wood vertically.

Then you need to cut a strand of yarn long enough to fit the number of spins you want to perform. It can be done with fingers or tying directly into the side of the shuttle needle having a hole. The other end of the wool is attached, at the start, in the first line of the warp. Starting with this rope, the shuttle needle is introduced (or wool with your fingers) alternately passing a rope above and below the next string up to the last rope. Pulling to pass the wool. The same operation is repeated in the opposite direction,  the rope that was taken above it will now taken below and vice versa..

Do not pull too much from the wool because the loom will not stay with straight sides.

To make another loom is placed back a warp with a thick cotton yarn or the like, by passing alternately through the slots of the timber.

We can use different thicknesses of wool to suit the abilities of children.

If the child is very young or little laborious, we will give a very thick wool to fast forward. For the more highly skilled or older children or we can give them more fine wool.

The first steps should not be complicated, a loom made ​​with stripes of different colors can be very nice and helps them to easily learn the art of weaving. The finished work can serve as a rug or blanket for dolls. Also sewing it to a fabric, to reinforce the fabric, you can make a small bag.

The Crafts in Waldorf pedagogy are incorporated regularly in the first grade but throughout the kindergarten have been experienced from the care you have been putting planters in their daily actions. Gradually the child will need a little time to a higher concentration, the 5 year old still living routines expansion-concentration garden but is preparing to make the move to primary. So, there are times when wool cords are being created by nimble fingers and those awake. It also comes as an activity for the whole year frame loom, spinning warp to the teacher prepares to leave will incorporate a more mature the child learns to conquer.

BEES WAX TREATMENT FOR WOOD

BEES WAX TREATMENT FOR WOOD Coscoja Workshop.

It is a very old technique. Egyptians used beeswax for wood treatment and the construction of ships. Our ancestors valued it a lot. It is said that the beautiful sound of Stradivarius musical instruments is due to the use of " gold varnish ", made ​​of wax , propolis and linseed oil . But the old recipes have been largely lost and natural products have been forgotten by the appearance on the market of cheaper industrial products such as waxes and synthetic varnishes .

Here you have a homemade recipe for making a semi-hard wax, easy to apply :

Mix 24% beeswax with 6% carnauba wax, blended in water bath at 60 or 70°C. Then add 30% essence of turpentine ( pine turpentine ) and the 40% left with linseed oil. It is important if you plan to apply the wax in toys that the flaxseed oil is without siccative because it would contain lead and could be toxic if it’s licked.

To get a softer wax, turpentine portion is increased at the expense of reducing the beeswax. For a harder wax do in reverse.

A hard wax is, for example, suitable for parquet , flooring , furniture , inside of windows , toys and musical instruments. A semi hard for doors , frames , picture frames , antique furniture , inside of windows , carvings, turned parts .... A soft wax works best for wood paneling for walls and ceilings and aftercare of wooden objects of any kind.

The wood is not waterproof and so can breathe, but it will also absorb stains if it gets any liquid on top.

The wax can be applied with a cotton cloth that doesn’t fray , making a wrist, or with a semi-hard brush or paint brush, trying to work well in the direction of the wood grain and ensuring that they are distributed evenly , filling every pore . The wax should be lukewarm to apply a thin layer effortless, especially if we have prepared a hard wax.

Drying time can be between a few hours and a day or two, and it’s less time the higher the temperature and lower the humidity. Normally, it is best to wait a day.

Once dry you can polish with a clean cloth and give it a soft glow . The smell of the essence of turpentine or linseed oil will disappear in a week.

If the wood gets dirty you can clean it again with wax.

When we started to develop our toys, we always finished them with wax. Our children went to a Waldorf school and all the kids used them as well. When we started doing craft fairs for the general public , due to ignorance, people thought the toys were not finished and commented things like "They are sold that way so that you can paint them as you like at home".

As the ignorance was unfortunately very general , we decided to start painting our toys, but with water paints, suitable for children and environment  friendly. We only keep some with no paint such as the wheel horses , stick horses , trucks, knitting machines or cribs and we now treat them with an organic oil which costs less to apply than the wax . But if anybody is interested in a special order of any toy treated with wax, please ask us . We are Coscoja Workshop

I hope the article has been interesting and useful , see you in the next one.