a simple yarn

Today was Art Day at my kids’ primary school. One hundred-thirty kids running around the school yard with access to paint among other things…Uh oh.

Now, you’d think it would result in absolute chaos, but I have to confess it was great fun! For such a small school I was extremely impressed with the level of art and creativity that was happening today. Not just slap some paint on paper…are we all having fun yet?…let’s call it ‘art’! Nope. They had 21 (count ‘em 21!) different activity stations where the kids could work, experiment and create…including glass painting (to attract butterflies in the wildlife garden), bog oak sculpture, turf sculpture, pottery wheel, paper making, metal working, digital photography, tie-dyeing, performance art, mural painting, and printing among others.

Then there was, of course, weaving and spinning. Weaving-Instructor-Máire loaned me her Louet Klik loom and a stack of weaving sticks. Kids made bracelets with the sticks and had a go on the loom. Fibre-Friend-Holly brought her spinning wheel to round out the fibre corner! Oh, the kids had a great time winding yarn around the sticks for a take-home souvenir and loved slipping the shuttle through the shed and beating the threads.

But once, maybe twice in the course of the day I think I saw it…

Perhaps one or two out of all those kids who tried the loom stayed for ‘just one more go’ and then came back later in the day for more! There was something compelling them to come back time and again. And they definitely had ‘the knack.’ So tell me, is this planting the seed of interest in the heart of a future weaver? Is it cultivating a new crop of weavers and spinners? Who knows? But I’d like to think that it’s a great first step to pass along the art of the craft to the next generation!