Decorate your own toothbrush

Venturing out to buy the family toothbrushes at the supermarket can be a bit disheartening if you're after something without licenced characters or gender-specific colours. Racks full of pink, glittery princess toothbrushes and blue cars and transformers burst forth as you try to find a colour and character mix that fits your child's tastes... Sometimes sighing when it doesn't and when what's on offer for what should be a simple tool is... disappointing. 

Then there's all the plastic and fact that these tools should be regularly replaced. If you're a family of five, like ours, that's a whole lot of plastic thrown into landfill over a lifetime. 

We like to keep things simple by buying bamboo toothbrushes in bulk here. They're soft, lightweight fair-trade, sustainable and compostable. All things we love.

To combat the confusion of five plain wooden toothbrushes in the holder, we decorate them ourselves. Any paint will do, but our favourite, most simple way to decorate them is using our Giotto Materials Markers. They're permanent paint markers that work on absorbent materials like ceramic, stone and wood. Easy to hold, mess free and vibrant and make for a fun activity. What we love best is that we can choose our most favourite colours and patterns and every toothbrush is different. Like a little evolving art installation in our bathroom. 

You can find our Giotto Materials Markers here. 

*NB: we've not been paid to endorse the environmental toothbrush, we just thing they're a great product*

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.

Keeping it Local

The beautiful view at the end of our street

When we started to think about tending Spiral Garden, we were excited to share some of the talents of people local to us here in beautiful Tasmania. Among our friends and extended networks there are so many talented people! The local scenery provides endless inspiration and the cold winter provides lots of time to hone one's craft ;) We've gradually been putting the feelers out for things that might suit...

Mt Arthur Boronia Booties

Heidi from Willywam Whims contacted us one evening with some things she'd been making... Using repurposed woollen jumpers and pure wool felt, motifs showing Tasmanian endemic and endangered species... Is this something we'd be interested in? Umm.... YES!! Oberon's ears pricked up at the endemic threatened species bit... He's an ecologist and botanist at heart and knows the local threatened species well. We want to share our love of this beautiful place with you. We want to do it in a way that is as ethical and environmentally sound as possible. So Heidi's products have ticked pretty much all boxes. They're beautiful too, don't you think?

Waratah Elf Hat detail

 The Waratah elf hat was a special request from us and holds a special place in our hearts. Our toddler's middle name is Waratah. We do love it so! And it is amazingly warm and snuggly.

Wedge-tailed Eagle Elf Hat detail

We've also been blessed with the beginning of a beautiful range from local textile artist Acorn Girl. We're so excited to provide an outlet for her gorgeous little gnomes and other needle felted delights. I'm excited to see what she comes up with next!

Acorn Girl's gnomes

Next month, among other things, we're looking forward to sharing more of our own handmade goodies with you. It's been a little while since we've made things under the owlet label... About as long as we've had our littlest... But we're looking forward to spending some time in the evenings crafting and getting them ready over the coming weeks. We really can't get much more local than our own lounge room! We generally try to shop for local products, especially if they've been locally made or grown. But for the things we can't buy direct from the maker, we're really happy to know that it's been made with as much care for the planet as possible. And if possible, as close to home as we can find.

If you're local to Hobart, make sure to write "Local" for the discount coupon code and shipping will be deducted when you buy from us. You're welcome to drop by and collect your lovely things straight from the garden, or we can arrange for you to collect them in town most days. If you'd like to keep up to date with what's going on at Spiral Garden, make sure to sign up for the newsletter using the form over on the right. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest! All the links are in the right hand column there... Do say hello and let us know if there's anything you'd like to see in the garden. We'd love to have a chat and a cuppa with you. xx

Handmade Christmas?

I often pledge to make each Christmas a handmade one. More often than not, mid-December rolls around and EEEEEEEEEEK - I haven't made everyone's gifts. These days, I figure that if what I'm buying is fair trade or locally handmade, that's still a lot better than ordinary store-bought gifts!

If you love to give handmade too, here are some ideas...

Breastfeeding Mother Doll and Baby $82.00 (I actually have one in stock, which is unusual for this time of year!)

Itsy Bitsy Lou Lou reduced to $30.00 - a fantastic price for a handmade cloth doll of this size with such beautiful clothing - her siblings Molly and Oliver are also up for adoption!

Bamboo Face & Body Wash Cloths $10.00 each


All of the Beguile Soaps and Lip Balms are handmade here in Australia!

Jasminka's Silk Angel Mobiles are just perfect and only $40.00 each.

We love our Hand-felted Garden Flags - a very versatile gift.

Eco Clay is handmade and certainly hand tested around here!

The very popular Sandwich Wraps are just $15.00 each. Our last stock sold out quickly, so order soon.

Juggling Balls are great fun for all ages! Check out these felt ones!

Of course we have many more dolls, gnomes, animals, bags, dress-ups, jewelery and craft items which are made by hand within Australia. Come and browse our online store today. Almost all of our products are actually handmade or handcrafted, but the ones above are some which are made by people I know, with their own hands!

Silk Angels

New Baby? Decorating? These gorgeous silk angels are so serene...

The mobiles are hand-crafted by Jasminka in Victoria, Australia. They comprise of a 16cm diameter rattan ring, fine gold thread and twelve hand-dyed silk angels with fleece inside their heads. A unique gift.

Featured Stockist - Rainbow Stitches

Karen Yates of Rainbow Stitches creates by hand these adorable and colourful felt food items from Italian wool felt, filled with wool fleece from "Wool on Piper". All stitching is done by hand with pure cotton thread. Each set comes packed in a in sweet pink or blue gingham checked cardboard gift box with matching gift card.


Karen works at home, alongside her young family. Each stitch is made with love and care. Spiral Garden currently stocks three Rainbow Stitches products, starting at only $27.00.

Related Products:
All Purpose Full Apron
Enamel Cup and Saucer
Wooden Spoon
Playcloths