Capstone Library - TT1

I live in Kathmandu in the Himalayas where we have a very rich tradition of many different ethnic groups with their own unique crafts and handwork. Over the years, I have seen that my country’s rich traditional craft knowledge is disappearing very fast. I would like to make sure that the children in the Himalayan region know how to make some of the traditional items that have been used in most houses in the hills and the high mountains. I feel that if we do not catch this knowledge now and bring it into education, in one generation from now it will be lost forever.

In Rudolf Steiner’s Indications on Handwork, he explains how important it is for children to find practical ways to use their hands. People around the world created quilting as a way to be thrifty and practical – to improve thin fabric so that it can be used for warmth, whether in a garment or a bed covering. Human beings value beauty and variety, so these practical quilted covers and garments are also works of art, poetry, protest and remembrance. This project hopes to introduce quilting in age-appropriate ways in each grade, building the skills a quilter needs and emphasizing....

The 1st grade experience is pivotal in the development of the child. A transition from the nurturing communal experience of kindergarten unfolds into a more traditional academic school experience. They are ready to sink their loose and wobbly teeth into the rhythms and habits of the classroom life and work. This helps to form the foundation for all successive school learning. The children, brought together from different kindergarten experiences, are encouraged to work together and depend on each other as a unified class unit. Good habits are developed when caring...

This heart and scrap of fabric hung in my classroom for four years. I got it at the wonderful heaven that is The Scrap Exchange in Durham, NC. You can’t quite see, but it’s a piece of recycled t-shirt emblazoned with the words, “REUSE! BECAUSE YOU CAN’T RECYCLE THE PLANET!” This little scrap was the inspiration for my final project. Of course, there are an endless sea of projects for one to make in the world.

Life in the state of Oregon, where I live, depends, like in all other places on earth, on where there is water and where there is not, how much water, and when. We have all heard the rallying cry “Water is Life.” However, what differentiates Oregon (and the Pacific Northwest in general) from other places in the United States are the drastic differences you can see in the water-determined geography of the state. I’ve included both a topographical map and a rainfall map in the appendix in order to help readers better visualize what I am describing.

Engages more directly with the will and feeling, requiring little “thinking” (especially in the earlier projects).
Requires less fine motor coordination than many handwork disciplines, offering an opportunity for success to students who often struggle.
Offers a unique sensory experience to students and an often rhythmical and meditative process.
Helps to develop self regulation (self restraint & delayed gratification).
Possibly offers opportunities to develop and strengthen spatial reasoning and abstract thinking (3d seamless).

Kantha is one of India’s oldest embroidery techniques. It involves just a simple running stitch put together to create the Kantha. It finds its origins on the East coast of the country in what is now Bangladesh and West Bengal. Kantha is the Bengali word for quilt and that was its origin; used to face the cold damp nights during the monsoon months. It was created from old saris and dhotis folded over with layers stitched together. Later on it became synonymous for rags and stitching them together.

The traditional folk costumes are being taken up again in the modern city life. Young educated women and men are growingly aware of the necessity to keep the traditions alive, to preserve the cultural heritage of the Romanian culture. In the villages one can very rarely find people who keep the traditions up, and those people are growing old and the tradition tends to disappear.

My project introduced students to various concepts and skills related to quilting, including piecing/patchwork, the process of sewing smaller pieces of fabric together to make a larger design; appliqué, a technique in which fabric shapes are cut and sewn onto a backing fabric; and the quilting stitch, the process of sewing the layers of a quilt together using decorative stitches. In addition, at various grades they were introduced to the history of meaningful imagery or symbolism depicted in quilts.

My fascination with natural dye began when I was a small child growing up in Hokkaido, Japan. I remember clearly the first time I was exposed to the deep blue color of indigo as the women in my family often wore indigo-dyed kimonos. There were many beautiful kimonos that were woven and embroidered in different colored silk threads, but the depth of indigo blue was something striking and special to me.

Handwork, the simplicity of this word brings with itself the ever expanding possibilities to transform lives. The ever evolving complexity of times does not change the need to understand and do things simply. It is with handwork that the journey between thinking and doing is taken. In the past two years, we have explored handwork and experienced it from the shoes of a student from Grade 1 to Grade 8 along with being a learner ourselves.

The work of our hands is disappearing from our collective experience. Despite its unique curriculum, this is also a challenge in urban Waldorf schools today. Many of our students have not witnessed anyone in their home or community working with their hands. The fiber arts, or any hand craft like woodwork, can seem foreign and impossible for children. Even families attracted to Waldorf education are more and more connected to digital devices and disconnected from the traditional work of human hands.

Plants are important for the planet and for all living things. We have been nurtured by plants in our lives since ancient times. Plants provide us with food, fiber, shelter, medicine, mitigation of environmental pollution, paper and crafts for handwork.