Buttons...

A lazy afternoon, no plans and a big sister wanting to create something quick and fun to give her two smaller sisters...




By a stroke of luck, her Grandmother (who has impeccably good taste and a sense for these things) gave her a Sukie Button Factory and before we knew it we had a button each and spares. There was talk of gifts and friends and suddenly buttons were being counted and grouped, then divided and multiplied. Colours were discussed and new Sukie-inspired designs were created... And I do believe we have a quick and fun lazy afternoon craft project on hand for a long time to come.



Find our Sukie Button Factory here.

Colouring...

For a long time now, one of our favourite indoor activities has been colouring. We love opening a gorgeous colouring book and sharing filling the pages with colour together. Or taking a page each and working on something beautiful of our own making. Sometimes we'll even draw pictures in black outline and swap them to colour in! No matter what or how we colour, it always makes for comfortable, quiet time together.




We reach for our favourite pencils, crayons or paints and let the colours fill the page. We negotiate sharing space and favourite colours. We try different styles of colouring and talk about the shapes, shading, lines and different styles that make up the artworks that we are working with. We plan what we'll do next. We learn and develop motor skills, we explore colour... and we have fun!




Best of all, colouring is something we can all do together. It's an activity that takes as long as you like and travels well. We love colouring!

We have a beautiful range of colouring books and pencils, crayons and paints available in our store, including the beautiful Charley Harper colouring book you see above. This one has pages you can tear out, which makes colouring together super easy!

If you're interested in learning more about the benefits of colouring, there is loads of information in the links below. Happy colouring! xx


Developmental Benefits of Coloring
Why Color?
5 Reasons Why Every Adult Needs a Coloring Book
7 Benefits of Coloring
The Benefits of Colouring-In for the Elderly

Knitting

Knitting has become wildly popular in our home since the arrival of our Art Viva knitting needles to Spiral Garden. Each of our children have a pair that they knit with and particularly taken with learning the skill is our middle daughter who has only just turned seven. Although it's never too early or late to learn,around six seems to be just right for beginning, as many Waldorf/Steiner schools will agree.

Our daughter has been knitting for a little while. First on big, chunky needles, but has moved to our size 5 Art Viva needles. They are short in length, so perfect for small arms to use and small enough to be portable too. She's found the more regular size needle easier to use than a chunky needle for creating knitting projects she wants to make.

There's still a way to go before her knitting is perfect, but the leaps she's making with co-ordination and concentration are amazing. And it gives her a little something calming and quiet to do as she works with her hands. She still says the little rhyme we use to help her remember and it's so gorgeous to hear her mutter it under her breath, over and over, as she works...

"The rabbit goes through the hole,

around the tree,

back in the hole,

and away goes he..."

Do you like to knit? Or have your children learned the skill yet? 

You can find our Tasmanian handmade Art Viva knitting needles and knitting kits here. 

You'll find some helpful links on children knitting below:

The Benefits, Basics and Service Projects of Knitting for Kids  - Imagination Soup

Knitting and Intellectual Development - Millenial Child

Teaching Children How to Knit - Waldorf Handwork

Teaching Children How to Knit {VIDEO} - Martha Stewart

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modelling beeswax

One of our favourite and most popular new products has been our beautiful handmade modelling beeswax, exclusive in Australia to Spiral Garden.

Modelling beeswax is a fantastic medium for inspiring creativity. It's often used in Waldorf/Steiner education, particularly to illustrate storytelling and to engage younger children in an activity that requires and creates warmth. Beeswax is a beautiful material to hold and it has the most gorgeous, nurturing fragrance. It doesn't dry or crack, but can be re-worked over an over again as needed.

We sat down last week, on a rainy/sunny Tasmanian mid-winter's day, to spend some time connecting, chatting and playing with our beeswax colours, relishing the smell and the warmth as we moulded shapes in our hands.



To begin with, we cut our beeswax ingots into quarters with a warm, sharp knife. We only needed a small portion each for todays handwork, so we set aside the rest in their tins.



We dropped our small pieces of wax into cups of warm water for a few minutes to soften.




Then slowly, gently began to squeeze and stretch our malleable beeswax, warming our hands as we worked.





Bandicoots and turtles were the order of the day as the shapes appeared at our fingertips... Followed by an afternoon of imaginative play as modellers became wildlife carers. And such is the magic of this beautiful medium.



Handmade in Canada, using all natural ingredients and in a variety of colours, we're really proud to be selling this gorgeous product in sets of 12 or six, with beautiful reusable tins and gift bags or boxes. They make a fantastic gift, or something special for days at home, just like ours.

You can find our modelling beeswax here.

Easter in the Spiral Garden

We had such a lovely Easter break. Did you? We has lots of fun decorating eggs with our GLOB Easter Egg kits. The whole family got involved in experimenting and playing with colour and pattern to create different effects! Later we hid eggs, some filled with bulbs to plant in the garden and in new pots that sat under our Easter/Autumn tree on Easter Sunday morning.



We attended our first market at the local Steiner school, selling lots of our beautiful goodies and letting the locals know we are here.



And we took some time to recharge and reconnect with nature and wander around in the gorgeous Tasmanian bush.



What did you get up to over the Easter break?
Do you get out into nature often?

Love to you and yours. xx

Easter in Autumn :: Catching our breath...

Hello Gardener Lovers! 

It has been such a long time since we updated here. Our first busy Christmas season was just so wonderful and over in the blink of an eye and we have only just caught our breaths again. We're hoping to come and update you here, just as much as the regular emails we send out. We do hope you'll join us as we share the wonderful discoveries we make, as we pop them in our store, and our seasonal wanderings too. 

We always find the change of seasons, especially the seasons of Autumn and Spring, so inspiring. A need to renew and prepare for the seasons to come pushes us to clean and tidy up our space and our family rhythms. And observing nature's subtle changes brings beauty and inspires lots of learning and play.

It's that ever so beautifully confusing time of year again... Easter in Autumn! In our home we try and combine the two traditions, weaving harvest time and the retreat and decline towards winter with the promise and hope of new life and growth after Winter has gone. We plant winter crops and bulbs with the promise of food to sustain us and new flowers to brighten days in the Spring! So... the Easter traditions weave in beautifully, in a round-about sort of way...

This week we've set up a special part of the shop just bursting with suggestions for Easter. Watch out for lovely new bits and pieces there! Our absolute favourite is our GLOB Easter Egg Colouring Kit. You'll have loads of fun mixing colours with these beautiful natural dyes to invent a beautiful rainbow of eggs.