Making a Gnome Calendar

It has been a crafty summer here at Syrendell!  

We spent an inspired weekend at the Griffin Dyeworks Dye and Fiber Retreat in Castaic, CA.  Camping, spinning, teaching Tunisian crochet, weaving, dyeing, coppersmithing and so much more!  Truly a treat for all people interested in learning more about fiber arts in a relaxed setting. 

Next, we spent 4 weeks teaching, leading and assisting at the Davis Waldorf School Summergarden camp.  Week 1: Knitting, crochet, lucet; Week 2: Spinning, weaving, kumihimo; Week 3: Plant-dyeing, wetfelting, needlefelting; Week 4: Papercrafting and sewing.  Children also participated in gardening and wholesome food preparation.  


Now, we are enjoying crafting at home.  Joey is spinning yarn to earn $ for her upcoming 8th grade trip.  Her yarns are available at www.syrendell.etsy.com and by custom order (email: info@syrendell.com).  Ricky has been helping get our craft/music room reorganized (a thrilling and scary task!).  

Wilson and Mommy created a calendar with gnomes.  This was inspired by one that we had seen made by Mama Roots a while back, one of our favorite Etsy shops.  First, we ordered a wood ring from Joshua Rutherford of Honoring Fallen Trees.  He makes them out of beautiful hardwoods in different colors.  We chose maple.  Next, we selected 12 special little wood people.  We talked about the 12 months of the year, the 4 seasons, and the colors and symbols that represent the seasons.  


Next, Wilson chose colored pieces of felt for each month and matching embroidery threads.  With some embroidery assistance from Mommy and sister Joey, little gnome hats were sewn.  

Wilson painted the gnomes the color of each season and then sealed them with beeswax polish as they dried.  Hats were glued onto the gnomes.  Now, we will play games, tell stories, create math problems, and talk about the months of the year in Spanish and English with our beautiful gnome calendar!

Birthday Rings

We have always wanted a birthday ring that we could also use on our nature table for festival celebrations, including Advent.  One of our local Waldorf dads handcrafts these beautiful rings and sells them in his Etsy shop.  We asked for one unfinished so that we could paint it ourselves!

The wood is sycamore which is already so beautiful on its own.  We tested out how it would look on our kitchen table and in our nature table area.

Wilson and Mommy decided to paint rainbow colors using our Stockmar watercolors.  Then, we polished them with natural beeswax polish. 

Now, the birthday ring is ready!  It's so beautiful, we have it out in the kitchen right now.  When the new baby is born around October, we will use it to celebrate the birth with a candle.

Early Spring Nature Table

Spring is coming, Spring is coming
Birdies build your nest.
Weave together, straw and feather
Doing each your best!
Doing each your best.

On some days in March, the sun is out here in Northern California!  Bulbs are blooming and Spring is almost here.  We always look forward to the transition from cold Winter to Sunny Spring.  Creating a new nature table together introduces pretty, pastel colors, flowers, and most of all...hope.

We start off with the kids taking everything down from Winter and cleaning the shelves.  A little Spring cleaning feels great!  Then, the kids go through the baskets of naturally-dyed silks and choose a color that reminds them of Spring.

We gather the first two daffodils that bloomed in our yard.  Our Davis home is still relatively new to us, so we were pleasantly surprised when daffodils popped up in the corner of our garden!

Daddy's hand-carved wood snail loves to make an appearance at some point.  Our little Spring dolls made from wood and naturally dyed wool and felt (from Mama Jude's on Etsy) look like flowers themselves.  Our friend squirrel carries a sign stating, "I love Spring!".  Lucy Leprechaun will make an appearance pretty soon with a clover in her hands. A crocheted fairy ring of felt flowers circle a beautiful handmade beeswax, egg-shaped candle by Jan Schubert of Bee Happy Candles.  I think that we will be reading Jan's book, The Sun Seed later this week! 

Happy Spring....

Products and Businesses that We Love

Here are some products and businesses that we love....


Organic aromatherapy soaps and candles
Oakmoss Etsy Shop  http://www.etsy.com/shop/oakmoss


Learning Foreign Language
Live Mocha http://www.livemocha.com/invite/r:35UGl8pq

Natural Dyes
Griffin Dyeworks http://www.griffindyeworks.com/

Fiber/Roving for Spinning and Felting
Dancing Leaf Farm http://www.etsy.com/shop/dancingleaffarm
Fiber Fancy http://www.etsy.com/shop/FiberFancy
The Sassy Sheep http://www.etsy.com/shop/westwinddesigns
Fiber Optic http://www.etsy.com/shop/FiberOptic
Mandalinn http://www.etsy.com/shop/mandalinn


Organic Seeds
Homegrown Healthy http://www.etsy.com/shop/HomegrownHealthy


Organic and Biodynamic Essential Oils and Hydrosols
Essential Aura http://www.essentialaura.com/


Organic Herbs
Mountain Rose Herbs http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/


Wood Buttons
The Button Shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/thebuttonshop


Wood Cars, Boats and Play Farm Fences
Footeprint Woodworks http://www.etsy.com/shop/footeprint


Story Books, Wood Dice, Other Wood Items
Mama Roots http://www.etsy.com/shop/mamaroots


Knitted Gnomes and Animals
Mamma 4 Earth http://www.etsy.com/shop/mamma4earth


Felted Acorns and Fairies
Fairy Folk http://www.etsy.com/shop/Fairyfolk

Count on Nature

At Syrendell, we are surrounded by the artistry of nature. The bounty of the garden vegetables glisten in the sun like jewels, the beauty of flowers smile like ballerinas on a stage, and even the humble ivy twist about like Celtic knots in the shade of trees. With the branches of felled trees, among abandoned heaps of clippings, in a quiet corner of the yard, one may think the artistry of nature had run its course. But no!

Revived by Syrendell, the tree branch is awakened and revitalized as homelearning counting and imagination blocks!



Daddy cut the branches, sanded their edges and rough parts of the bark, and some sets he finished with beeswax, others without (he seems to prefer to leave them unfinished to see the natural patina of the wood). In sets of twelve, with diameters averaging one and a half inches, with lengths between one inch to about three inches, they make excellent counting blocks, just the perfect number to learn basic operations. Mommy dyed a circle-shaped muslin fabric with onion skins, Joey sewed the edges, and Ricky and Wilson did a simple single crochet as a tie, and voila! A handy pouch to carry the wood blocks in. And with some imagination, both the fabric and the tie can serve so many other uses.

Nature continues to inspire us, feed us, protect us. We honor it by sustaining its vital force through the appreciation of all it can offer us and teach us.

Snails in the Garden

The garden is alive - a micro-biome of vegetation, organisms, and elements such as minerals, water, and sun. When we are involved, tending to the seasonal harvest, we become connected to the spirit of the earth.



Naturally, we find an assortment of creatures also enjoying the garden. Amidst the broad leaves of squash, we spotted a congregation of Syrendell snails!



It's Snooks (orange), Sport (red), Slim (blue), Sprig (green), and Sweets (purple), taking in a beautiful day. We should learn a thing or two from snails, to slow down a bit and savor life.





Happy gardening, friends!

The Chi of Streamer Wands

We had the pleasure of creating these wonderful streamer wands for a wedding. We can just imagine the joy of those attending the ceremony as they wave their streamers to bless the newlyweds! In feng shui, colorful ribbons and flags may be placed near a home and as they move to gentle breezes, it is said that they capture and stir the nurturing chi energy. For a wedding, the fluttering streamers would certainly call the energies of love, sensuality, and happiness. As for a child, well, there's just something infinitely cool and captivating when a simple circular motion of the arm creates a lively, shimmery, ribbony trail.

We made the sticks of poplar, cut to seven inch lengths. An earlier prototype of our streamer wand had a metal eyelet screwed to the top of the stick for the ribbons, but in our new design, we carved a subtle dual concavity and drilled a hole for the ribbons to loop through - a safer, more elegant design!

The ribbons are of silk strips that had been naturally hand-dyed - oh so pretty!





Streamer wands - from weddings to playtime to enhancing chi, ribbons on a stick go a long way!

Eco Twig House

The magic folk at Syrendell have long been advocates of sustainable building design. When us humans were experimenting with straw bale homes, rammed earth, cob, FSC-certified lumber, or the more eco-luxurious materials such as soapstone, quartz, concrete, or Vetrazzo, the Syrendell Sprites were living in mushrooms and other natural shelters. The black and white picture is of pioneer syrendell sprites from over 1000 years ago!

The Eco Twig House exemplifies Syrendell's commitment to resource conservation and natural materials. We can't create Nature's habitats like mushrooms, but the sprites are nevertheless appreciative of our eco-awareness! The base of the house is made from a reclaimed fence plank that had aged over time and fallen in a recent storm. The posts, trusses, and beams are made from dried branches and twigs. Non-toxic wood glue and natural fiber yarn secure the pieces together. To finish the surfaces, after light sanding, we used a natural beeswax and organic jojoba oil polish.

Making the house takes a bit of time, but it is a rewarding project. We are selling the Eco Twig House in our Etsy shop (the one pictured in this blog is sold), but we encourage you to try to make your own from found materials around your yard. Enjoy the pictures of our Eco Twig House, and it might inspire your next building project to be eco-friendly and sustainable.

Thanks to all our blog friends for all the nice comments on our Twig House!

Here are two:

Jimana Diaz said: I want to live in that house!!!

Joy said: That's excellent! I just showed my 8 year old who thinks she might build one today.

Lucy Leprechaun and Mother Teresa in the Dell!

We welcomed two visitors to Syrendell, Lucy Leprechaun and Mother Teresa. They stopped by and chatted it up with the sprites and fairydell. Lucy talked about the rainbow she had seen two days ago and when she went to go find the pot of gold, it was a pot of boiling basmati rice instead! (It's India Week at homeschool in the dell.) Mother Teresa told a little limerick and everyone laughed - who knew this Nobel laureate could be so funny - she is so endearing! Thank you both for gracing our dell with your cuteness!

Syrendell Sprites

With the gloomy weather hanging over head the past few days, we welcomed the visit by our magical friends, the syrendell sprites. This morning, with bouquets of flowers, twigs, and leaves in hand, they brought cheerfulness and joy. From them, we can appreciate the beauty of nature, found in the tiniest details of the flowers they lovingly hold. Cloaked in wonderfully vibrant hues, syrendell sprites signal the coming of the seasons. Only with a serene and open spirit will you hear them; they speak in whispered tones, they hum tunes learned from woodland creatures. Syrendell sprites, like the fairydell and hoblins, are children of Nature, finding sanctuary in the magical places of Syrendell.