Growing Up Creative

#7 How-to make a newspaper basket (Teneh) for Shavuot

 

One of the many great traditions of Shavuot is to make a Teneh (basket) filled with fruits and vegetables. I have never weaved a basket before (or at least I don’t remember so) but I was up for the challenge and so were the girls. A couple of months ago I visited a studio of a friend (Guy Lugashi) who weaved Huge baskets out of brown paper. Inspired by his work we started in a much smaller and manageable scale, using some left over newspaper that was lying around the house. 

This is an easy tutorial and I think you will find wanting to make many more to use around the house for general storage purposes.

I found that weaving the basket is better for older children (7 and up), but if you have younger ones they will love helping out in the process and paint it at the end.

^{Zoe's Teneh}
You will need:

 

• Newspaper
• Scissors
• Stapler or tape
• Paints and brushes (optional)

How to:

1. Break the newspaper apart (take the center staples out)
2. Fold each sheet ,the long way, over till you get strips of about 1 1/2” wide. Folding the paper is important for making a strong and durable basket). the length is not that important, if your strips are too short, you may staple a couple of them together.
   
3. Start by weaving the base from the center out (we used 4 horizontal and 4 vertical strips). Stop when you think your basket is the right size.
4. Start to weave the vertical sides. Staple the first strip close to the base and go around the base lifting the strips up to a 90 degrees angle. Keep a consistent pattern of over and under. You may staple as you turn the corner (staples may be pulled out at the end).
5. Cut the access of newspaper strip
6. Repeat for multiple rows till you reach your desired height (our basket was 3 rows tall).
   
   
7. When you are done, fix the top row by stapling or gluing the ends. You may fold the edge inside or trim it into a pattern. Zoe cut it into triangles which I thought came out very nice.
8. Use another newspaper folded strip for a handle, weave it into the side of the basket and secure it.
9. You may paint it at the end, or decorate with flowers and other greens.
10. Use your Teneh to carry your lunch to school this week, or carry your Shavuot picnic supplies, Either way, Enjoy it.

I wish you a happy and delicious holiday.

Make sure you share some of your Teneh’s on the ecokids craft flickr pool.

linked on Craft Schooling Sunday

tali

 

A Bird’s Nest / by Hayyim Nahman Bialik

I know you haven’t been sleeping much, desperately waiting for my post about Hayyim Nahman Bialik ’s poem activity. So this is it, no more sleepless nights for you.
I chose to translate the poem קֵן לַצִּפּוֹר - A Bird’s Nest. It is a classic, every child in Israel knows it, and most importantly it is one of Ori’s favorites. I hope you like it too.
I couldn’t find any other translation for this poem, so...when you can’t find it you just do it. With THE brilliant mind of my friend Anat we have got it done.

קֵן לַצִּפּוֹר - A Bird’s Nest
By/ Hayyim Nahman Bialik
Translation/ Anat Weinstein and Tali Buchler

קֵן לַצִּפּוֹר,
בֵּין הָעֵצִים
וּבַקֵּן לָהּ
שָׁלֹשׁ בֵּיצִים.

וּבְכָל-בֵּיצָה
– הַס, פֶּן תָּעִיר –
יָשֵׁן לוֹ
אֶפְרוֹחַ זָעִיר

Bird’s nest,
in the trees
and in the nest
there lay eggs three.

Inside each egg
-hush…, do not stir-
Is a sleeping hatchling
A tiny baby bird.

Inspired by this poem we have crafted a nest with 3 little painted eggs nesting peacefully within.
I have posted the tutorial on growing up creative as an Eco kids craft project. I hope you will enjoy making it as much as we did.
WARNING:This is a messy project but it is a mess well worth cleaning.



Please let me know if you have any questions.

tali

#03 Recycled egg carton hand-held mask

In the spirit of Purim we have crafted some imaginary birds hand-held masks using recycled egg carton. A great activity appropriate for any age group.
This post is part of an ‘Eco kids craft’ series I feature on my other blog Growing Up Creative. ‘Eco kids craft’ is a series of craft tutorials using recycled materials. My goal with this series is to guide parents and educators through the phases of some easy craft activities that encourage recycling, creativity and making with what you have. I have decided to combine this series in both blogs. I hope you will find it useful.

You will need:
Egg cartons (free range eggs carton is preferred…just kidding)
Scissors
Washable tempera paint and brushes
Feathers
Embellishments: feathers, fabric scraps, paper scraps, glitter etc.
Popsicle stick (craft sticks)
Masking tape
Craft glue
Please note, since I have more egg carton than I can handle and give to preschool, I have I been using them as disposable paint palette, it works great.

How to:

1. Cut a pair of egg carton cups with the “beak” for each mask
   
2. Make holes at the bottom of the egg cups
   
   
3. Paint
   
   
   
4. Embellish
5. set aside to dry
6. Tape or glue craft stick to the side of the mask
   
   
   
    
   
7. play

linked with Craft Schooling Sunday

Enjoy and have a happy Purim

tali

Star of David foil ornament

My mom has the habit of bringing at list 2 cakes when ever she comes to visit: one cake is usually the girl’s favorite and the other is Oren’s (I am insignificant at that matter…I think she takes me for granted…or that she knows I like any cake, period.). After a couple of days I am left with 2 empty disposable aluminum pans that I cant reuse and I hate seeing them go to waste.

So this is my solution, inspired from some great traditional Mexican tin work I got from my dear friend Karen. I hope you will try this at home.

^{Mexican tin art}

^{our Chanukah tin art}

You will need:

• 1 mom that bakes 2 cakes every other week or any other disposable foil pans (could be take-out containers or baking pans)
• A pen/ pencil with out the tip/ or a thick nail
• Colorful permanent markers (such as sharpies and ArtLine)
• Scissors
• Ribbon
• Hole puncher
• Newspaper
• Star of David template

How to:

• flatten the aluminum pan, using your hands and a towel. you may cut out the corners if necessary
  
  
• Draw firmly a Star of David using a dull pencil or a tip less pen. You may trace this template to do so.
• Using scissors cutout the Star of David. The edges may be a little sharp, younger kids may need some assistance.
• Place the Star of David on a thick pile of newspaper, this is key to get nice texture.
• Use your drawing tool to deboss your design. if you turn the star over to the other side you will get the pattern embossed, the image you have drawn will be raised.
• the project gets even more exiting when you deboss areas in your drawing instead of just drawing a line, similar to filling-in shapes in a coloring book. only instead of using color, you are creating rich texture of raised and indented material. 

• Use sharpie markers (equivalent to ArtLine in Europe) to add color to your star. 
• Punch a hole at the top of your star, tie a ribbon and hang somewhere special. 

 
The sharpie markers over the aluminum are vividly luminous.

variation:

Try different holiday elements such as a menorah, an oil pot, a dradle etc.