Crafty Ladies, and Kids Too

Two of my sisters came to visit over the Fourth of July weekend, and Theresa even brought along her son, his wife and their three children. After the race on Saturday and the evening cookout and fireworks (more about both later) we were ready to settle down and be quiet on Sunday.

Both sisters have gardens and both love lavender, so we decided to make lavender wands. My lavender was a little past its prime but still fine for making wands so we cut a lot of stems and set to work. The concept was new to Susan, Theresa's daughter-in-law, but she was willing to give it a try. In the end, she outdid all of us, making a wand that was braided with three different color ribbons.

Hope, her granny Theresa and her mother Susan all work on wands.

I had some large glass beads in a bowl on the porch that I'd been thinking about using to make suncatchers. The beads were leftovers from a craft project I will be doing at a couple libraries this summer--the smaller beads in the packages I bought were fine but the big ones were just, well, TOO big. With so many willing hands available, it felt like just the right time to make the suncatchers. We used electric fence wire to string them and everyone picked out whatever combination of beads they wanted on their suncatcher.

Hope and her little brother Cade look hard at work, don't they?

My sister Maggie made the prettiest one, I think, in "ocean" shades, as she called it, and indeed the soft turquoises, blues, greens and clear beads were reminiscent of the ocean's colors. I wish I had taken pictures of the finished products because they were both imaginative and colorful. And all my beads were used, which made me happy. Maybe I will remember to post a photo one day of the ones I made myself. I bought the beads from Fire Mountain's online clearance sale and got a great deal on them; I made up over100 craft packets for my programs and still had about 50 or more of these big beads left.

When we were looking for ribbons for the lavender wands, Hope spied my box of supplies for spoon puppets. Of course we had to make those too!

Theresa was a good sport about helping with the finer bits of work--Garrett's puppet was colorful, with a metallic green dress and purple-pink hair. According to him and to Hope, they were making puppets to go with my story "Gracie's Cabin"--Garrett's puppet is Crazy Gracie, he told me.

Hope managed to do most of her puppet by herself. She made Annie Rose, I think, from the same story.

And here's Hope's finished product. To make these silly puppets, you only need a wooden spoon, some fabric about the size of a man's handkerchief, scissors to cut a tiny hole in the exact center of the cloth, some tape to hold the cloth around the stick after you put the stick through the hole, some glue (fast-drying is best!) to hold yarn hair in place, and markers, stickers, etc to make the face. In this case, we used peel-and-stick foam shapes. You can add ribbon, sequins, and all sorts of other things to decorate the puppets. To use them, just slip your hand under the cloth, hold the spoon handle with three fingers and stick out your thumb and index finger to make "arms" under the cloth. Simple, simple and yet I have seen children make the most amazing creations with these simple supplies.The spoons can be found at dollar stores, 4 or 5 in a package for $1.

It was a fun Sunday afternoon and evening, and when we were finished the kids had something to play with and the ladies had cool things to take home. And I had a little less stuff in my house, which is always a good thing.

If you need better instructions for making spoon puppets, try this book. It's the one I learned from and it has lots of other great ideas for making puppets with things you might have around the house. With the heat wave we're having right now, finding things for the kids to do in the house might be a good way to keep them occupied since it's too hot to be outdoors.

(Blogger has evidently made some big changes over the weekend, so please excuse any oddities about the placement of photos and text, etc in my recent posts. It's been a weird experience!).

Storytelling and the WV State Folk Festival

Unknown musicians performing in a doorway at Glenville.

A big weekend coming up: Storytelling all day Friday, the WV State Folk Festival Oral Traditions tent (not to mention lots of good music!) in Glenville, WV on Saturday, my birthday AND Father's Day on Sunday, and storytelling all day Monday. Whew!

First is tomorrow morning, storytelling at the two libraries in my county. I've thought about what stories to share, worked on some new ones and I think I've got a good program ready to go. This will be the same program I will be using at several libraries this summer:

Since this summer's theme is Get Creative! , I've got lots of room for...creativity! Here are my choices:

Swapping Song-- this is a fun, interactive song that comes from the British Isles and was shortened a bit in the Appalachians.

Magic Paint Brush--a story from China. I will tell it using a whiteboard to draw the various parts of the story--not a draw and tell story, but more a story with illustrations. It teaches the benefit of helping others instead of serving your own greed, but like all good stories the message doesn't beat you over the head.

The Perfect Pet--this is an original story I wrote to go with my three dragon puppets, fairy puppet and king and queen puppet. I think it is going to be a lot of fun to tell. There is a participation chant and of course children from the audience will use the puppets to help tell the story.

How the Dog Chose its Master--a simple tale from India that allows audience participation and again, audience members using puppets to help tell the story.

The Tug of War-- a comic trickster tale from Australia. This story will again be audience participation and the only prop I need is a rope.

Bar the Door-an old British ballad that traveled to the mountains, this is funny and fun, with a lesson about being stubborn.

Fill Bowl! Fill! --a Jack tale from the Appalachian Mountains, and like all Jack tales great fun to tell and to listen to.

How the Vulture Got its Color--a tale from Burma that makes a point about vanity and gratefulness. This is the story I prepared as a flannelboard story, so children can help with the telling.

Aiken Drum--from Scotland, a story and a song about a funny little man. The original ballad was a political statement, but became a nonsensical children's song over the years. I tell the story of the brownie Aiken Drum who came to help out but was insulted by the gift of new clothes, then close the story with the song and a flannelboard. It's good fun and lots of participation in the song and flannelboard.

Of course, I may mix it up with a few alternate stories. I keep a ready supply to be sure what I tell is right for the audience in front of me. But I like this mix of world folktales, Appalachian stories and ballads, flannelboard stories and participation stories. I think it's going to be a lot of fun for all of us, listeners and storyteller.

Saturday is Glenville and the West Virginia State Folk Festival! Traditional mountain music, crafts, country people in town to celebrate, friends, and a lot more at the oldest folk festival in West Virginia. Click here and here to see my posts about last year's festival in Glenville.

So what does the festival have for writers and storytellers?

Plenty! The Oral Traditions Tent at the WV State Folk Festival in Glenville, WV this weekend will feature some of our state's best writers. Here's the schedule of presenters, and remember, the festival is free!

Fred Powers, telling last year as a coal miner. Powerful.

Friday, June 19th:
11am:Kirk Judd (poet)
12:00 Laura Treacy Bentley (poet)
2:00 pm Marc Harshman (poet, storyteller, writer)
3:00 pm Mountain Echoes (storytellers)

Saturday, June 20th:
10 am Fran Schmetzer (local Gilmer County author)
12:00 Susanna Holstein --that would be me :-) (storyteller, poet, writer)
3:00 pm Cat Pleska (storyteller and writer)
4:00 pm Suzi "Mama" Whaples (storyteller)

Here's a link to the festival: www.wvfolkfestival.org/

Will I see you there? I hope so!

Oh, and the birthday/Father's Day? I think we'll see in the summer solstice with a fire in the firepit and a few glasses of wine, then on Sunday morning we'll make pancakes with homemade strawberry syrup, drink coffee on the porch, and maybe get those cabbages in the freezer--and who knows? Maybe I'll get the kraut made too.

If that doesn't sound like a real celebration, remember that I work away from home most of the week, and for me this kind of day is a perfect celebration of why we live in the country.

Here's What the Plumbing is for

Puppet stages!

These are simple screen stages. The puppeteer kneels (or stands if he/she's a little person) or sits behind the screen and the puppets use the top of the screen as their "floor." Simple to build, easy to take apart and store in a bag, and useful for multiple applications. The one above is a floor model...

....and this one if for tabletop or floor. We have one more, even smaller stage in progress, which will also be for tabletop use. Or for little people on the floor. The curtains need to be hemmed so they're not hanging on the frames properly yet.



The stages will help these guys get out of the closet!


One of the library programs I am offering this summer is Create a Story, Create a Puppet. First we'll tell a story or two with puppets; then using my puppets and the screen stages, children can make up a story to act out. They can use a folktale too, of course. The idea is imaginative play. The second part of the program is making wooden spoon puppets or finger puppets to take home and let the fun continue.


I have a lot of puppets--probably 50 or more, not counting the finger puppets, and I am always looking for more because I find that puppets and storytelling are a natural fit with children. The puppets touch that part of a child's brain that allows the imagination free rein. The story touches their mental imaging abilities and language development. Combine the two and it's dynamite.


Another reason for the screen stages is a grant program I am working on with my local library. The library wants to develop a teen puppetry troupe; I ran one for 7 years at my branch library and it is still in existence today, 12 years after its start. I will be offering 4 workshops for the teens, teaching them manipulation of glove puppets, puppet characterization and voice, and script/story selection and development. After the four workshops, they will be on their own with the very capable library staffer who will be in charge of the program.


Part of the grant covers the purchase a a starter collection of puppets and a stage. My screen stages can be used for practice until the big stage arrives.

Next step for me is to get all the curtains sewed--a hand project since I gave away my sewing machine. With only straight hems to sew it should not be too difficult. I also have get the manual ready for the teens--it's mostly complete, only needing to be revised from storytelling with puppets to using puppets on stage. The basis of voice, manipulation, characterization are the same. I also have a collection of short, easy puppet scripts I wrote for my library, and some of them will be included in the manual.


So that's what the plumbing and fabric is for! You had some very creative ideas, and some of them very close to the truth.