This Palm Sunday craft may be used during a procession in the church but it also is an excellent method for creating a palm branch prop for a play. Although it is simple the project has much better results when completed by older students, fifth grade and up. You will need eight sheets of green construction paper in all to complete a palm similar to this one. However, you can use this method with any number of sheets if you should desire to alter the size of the project. Fold the paper in an accordion fashion and then snip off the tips of the fonds in a curved-like fashion as seen in the far left hand photo above. The center photo shows how your accordion folds should look. You will then need to glue the edges of sets of four papers together to form a continuous sheet of palm leaves.
Left, I then bound both sets of palm leaves together with masking tape over the end of an old yard stick, one palm half on either side of my yard stick/ruler. Center, I added more tacky white glue to the edges of the palm leaves on the stick for strength. Right, I covered my tape with a small strip of paper, thereby giving the palm a clean look.
After leaving the palm branch to dray, I then glued the two accordion folded palms together down the center of my project and then wrapped the trunk of my branch with brown twine and white tacky glue to hide the writing on the old yard stick. On the far right you can see the completed palm branch.
As you can see by the photos, you may open the palm all the way into a circular shape and pin it down to the trunk of it's branch with a clamp of some sort. This gives the palm a very aesthetically pleasing appearance. However, I suggest that you only clamp this into place, not glue it permanently. This is because the palms store better when they are flat and closed at the top. Clamping them temporarily while on display will allow you to use them time and time again in future parades.
"This little bag for holding money or jewels is most useful to any woman blessed with such desirable possessions, and one as pretty as this would appeal to any woman of fastidious tastes as the daintiest and most useful of all simple presents to be made by the clever fingers of an artistic friend."
This antique needlepoint pattern of violets in a basket appeared in the Washington Times, Sunday, April 17, 1904.
Three lovely designs of cross stitch flowers in baskets.
"No. 718 is a design for embroidering baskets of flowers in cross
stitch style. The large basket is five and one-quarter inches in height
by five and three-quarters in width; the smaller baskets are four and
one-half inches in height by four and one-quarter in width. Transfers
for one large and two small baskets are given here.
In the pattern, all the stitches are crosses but, in the above
illustration, some are made single and some fancy as a suggestion for
color. The single stitches in the smaller design represent the baskets,
the crossed stitches leaves and the fancy stitches flowers, with a few
single stitches at the center for darker coloring. In the larger design,
the single stitches represent the basket, the crossed stitches the
leaves and bow knots and the fancy stitches flowers. As the flowers are
conventionalized, any preferred colors can be used.
The window pane method is perhaps the simplest and is particularly
successful when the material is thin such as batiste, lawn, or
handkerchief linen, the best plan is to pin the sheet of paper and the
material together an hold them up against the window pane and with a
sharp pencil trace the design on the fabric, or else lay the material on
the pattern on top of a table or other hard surface, and carefully
trace the design with a well pointed pencil. The design may also be
transferred to heavy material by using a piece of transfer or carbon
paper, to be placed between the pattern and cloth, using a sharp pointed
pencil to secure a clean line."
The Easter bunny picture above was made by the use of a series of stencils. The rabbits and the dandelions (taraxacum) where drawn by one method and the clover by another. I also combined colored pencils and crayons in this picture.
Step-by-Step Instructions:
In order to make the soft appearance of the fuzzy animals and the dandelions, I gently rubbed the side of my colors over the top of each stencil with a grey crayon first. The effect resulted in a feathery appearance.
Next, I traced around the clover and colored in the shapes left behind in a brilliant green crayon, resulting in harder brighter lines and shapes.
Then I copied the same process from step 1. to draw the dandelion puffs.
Draw the center details of the puffs with colored pencils red and black.
Use Crayons or pencils to color in the sky blue, clover leaves green and the clover buds lavender.
Teachers in this lesson may then discuss with young students the differences between design elements that are sometimes difficult to communicate in a drawing only. The rabbits look soft; the clover looks smooth. The fur and seeds look fuzzy, the clover looks bright and so on . . . Tactile ideas are easier to communicate through a fabric assignment but sometimes this is not affordable. Visual textures may be easier to believe when associated with objects that are obviously associated with textures small students enjoy in both their toys and in small animals that they are fond of.
Teachers will need to make stencils in advance for the assignment. These should look similar to the black silhouettes that I have pictured below.
Stencil shapes for drawing above. Enlarge these as needed.
The following article is from the Ogden Standard, Ogden City, Utah. It was published on March 23, 1918.
Easter toys and candy carts from 1910 - 1920
War Time Favors Include Plenty of Easter Chicks
Like good old Santa Claus, the Easter rabbit and the Easter chick admit a Teutonic origin, but one is sure that they --like the beloved folk of fairy lore ---have abandoned the land of their birth for a kindlier environment and will never more return.
At any rate children, the world over, will never let them go back. They are world-traditions now and may claim no special country. They belong to the realm of childhood and if grown-ups choose to get pleasure out of them, it is a vicarious pleasure at best and not to be compared with childhood's ecstasy. Watch any little boy or girl in front of a confectioner's window where enchanting bunnies and downy Easter chicks are displayed and you will have no doubt of the matter.
There seems to be just as many rabbits and chicks as ever this year, white rabbits and gray rabbits and pretty brown and white fellows with pink bows standing up behind their pink-lined ears. The white cats are are fascinating too and are only less downy and soft then the baby chicks --some of them live chicks that scurry about in lively fashion. The little people love these bunnies and chicks mush better than the ambitious Easter favors, ribbon decked and candy filled, which please grown-up sister; and the modern child with an Easter brim-full of joy in bunny and chick gifts, misses not at all the excitement of making Easter eggs that little folks of a generation ago found so thrilling and so satisfying.
Scraps of colored prints and calico used to be hoarded long before Easter time in preparation for the egg-coloring fun. The eggs were tied up in the gay colored cloths and boiled until hard. Then with their parti-colored shells and edible, hard-boiled interiors, they were piled on the breakfast table Easter morning. This is not one of the good old economical fashions to be bemoaned in later, more extravagant times; for dairy eggs served in such profusion, no matter how their shells were disguised with printed calico, would be a very very extravagant breakfast dish just now, and would doubtless cost more then a supply of bunnies and feathered chicks to go all 'round.
Quite appropriate and Hoover-ish for this war-time Easter are favors representing one of the excellent vegetables recommended in a conservation diet. Corn is also a patriotic food, since it saves wheat flour; and an attractive Easter favor of this year respresenting an ear of corn and a feathered chick is pictured. Beside is is a cunning white Easter bunny with pinks ears, popping out of a top hat in suggestive magican manner. But it you lift the bunny out of the hat, you will find a store of candy.
For a table center at Easter season is the pretty dove cote "Jack Horner." The tissue-wrapped gifts are hidden in the dove cote and each dove, perching on a bracket before a crepe paper covered window, has attached to his feet a long ribbon. When the doves are jostled from their perches their weight drags the gift tied to the other end of the ribbon through the crepe paper pasted across the window. The dove cote is one of the interesting crepe paper novelties, of which there are many new sorts this year. Pasteboard covered with crepe paper was used for the little house and the standard is of wood also covered with crepe paper, leaves and vines of crepe paper clamor over the dove cote and in the paper grass at its foot nestle two natural looking barnyard friends, a rabbit and a rooster. Another Hoover suggestion you see; for the injunction now is to eat roast, fried and fricasseed rooster in preference to hens which must be saved and coaxed to lay eggs for the Allies.
Still another crepe paper novelty is pictured in the aeroplane which is quite a gem of its kind. Even the propeller is evident in this nicely balanced craft which is equipped with a formidable amount of ammunition in the way of "bombs" each "bomb" an Easter egg filled with candy. the intrepid pilot sits at the wheel, clad in a saucy uniform of checked silk gingham. Who would ever guess that the long, low rakish body of his craft is filled to the brim with gifts, each attached to a ribbon? When you seize one of the booms--the aeroplane being suspended from the chandelier over the supper table-- you pull the gift attached to your particular ribbon through the crepe paper cover of the airplane's body.
Very naturally, there is a war-time flavor in many of this year's Easter Novelties. Besides airplanes and observation planes, there are various sorts of artillery, even the cumbersome British tank being represented in a structure of pasteboard and crepe paper. And there are fighting men too. There are the useful favors too--practical gifts that may be tied up in tissue and white or daffodil ribbon and tucked into Easter Jack Horners. Of course, there is a war-time flavor to these also. The boy back home from camp for the Easter week-end will receive a sowing kit or some leather-bound contrivance for photographs, writing materials or the like: or his favor may be a pair of woolen socks, knitted by friendly feminine hands. Field glasses are valuable gifts and no soldier or sailor objects to receiving a well-used pair, in such demand are these glasses just now. For feminine guests there are jeweled service flags, photograph frames, lockets that will hold a picture of the special hero at the front, and of course, all sorts of knitting belongings--reticules, needle cases, bracelet wool holders and so on.
Cantoria (singing gallery) by Luca della Robbia, from the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, now in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. Photographed in 2009.
Longfellow said, "Ah, what would the world be to us if the children were no more?" for in their hearts "are the birds and the sunshine." in their thoughts "the brooklet's flow." In Florence there stands in the museum one of the best sermons in stone the world has ever enjoyed. "Frozen music" indeed are these exquisite "Singing Children" of Della Robbia.
Just of the Via Propose, in Florence, that city called most appropriately the Lily of the Arno," is a narrow street wherein is located the Bargello. This building is veritable casket enclosing priceless treasures: a very sermon in stone, this mass of carving, this play of light and sunshine over the old columns and courts. Standing here since before the memory of man, history tells us it was erected for the chief magistrate of Florence and was renovated in 1373.
Pass through the court of the stairway and loggia where Dante walked. Here we come to the superb Hall of the Judges, and find that for which we seek--the "Singing Children" of Luca Della Robbia. These exquisite carvings were executed for the organ loft of the cathedral. The choristers now rest in this magnificent hall. The figures of these animated children are an interesting study, separately or in groups. The merry faces; the dancing bodies; the eager fingers holding the choir books or instruments of music; the parted lips singing praises to the Lord.
Serene in the rapturous throng,
Unmoved by the rush of the song,
With eyes unimpassioned and slow,
Among the dead angels, the deathless
(Children) stand listening breathless
To sounds that ascend from below--
From the spirits on earth that adore,
From the souls that entreat and implore
In the fervor and passion of prayer;
From the hearts that are broken with
losses,
And weary with dragging the crosses
Too heavy for mortals to bear.
The creator of these exquisite carvings was Luca Della Robbia, born in 1388 in Florence. The world rolls on leaving behind a wide track of history. Here in the peaceful city, the quietly flowing river, the beautiful Arno, rolls murmuringly by this treasure-house on this narrow street, this home of the "Singing Children." Within, near the blue arch of heaven, the singing and dancing and playing girls and boys lift up their silent timbrels, as they have been doing during these centuries, as if in Easter rejoicing.
The world rolls on, up the slopes of progression, and the world of art fills with pictures of beautiful children, good to look upon. Madonnas and the Christ child, playing children and singing children, mirthful children and sorrowful children. Truly what would this world be without children!
How To Arrange A Children's Easter Monday Party by Louise E. Dew, 1904
From the beginning to the end, the children's Easter party must be as unique and attractive as time and ingenuity can make it. All the details are to be planned with care, not excluding the sending out of the invitations. Invitations are to be written with violet ink on pure white note paper, at the top of which is a hand-painted little yellow chic holding a single violet in its beak. The point on the envelope flap should also have a chick painted on it, with a violet in its beak and one below the flap.
Don't forget to teach the children how to paint Easter eggs!
As the little guests arrive the young hostess should present them with boutonnieres of pansies with which the basket which she carries on her arm is filled. Violet colored ones should be given to the little girls and yellow ones to the little boys.
The dining room decorations should be entirely in yellow and violet pansies and smilax. A window box should be filled with these dainty blossoms, and they are to be massed in crystal bowls on the sideboard.
Whenever an egg is used for a week before Easter, and end should be chipped off and the contents removed. The shell should then be rinsed with water, and when the shells have generously accumulated they should be dyed violet and yellow along with the regular Easter eggs. A pretty arrangement for the shells is to fasten a knotted end of violet and yellow ribbon to each one with a drop of glue, covering the broken end with a circle of gold paper. These ribbons should be of unequal lengths and suspended in a mass close to the chandelier for a decorative effect.
Underneath the egg shells a large white crepe paper egg should be suspended by violet and yellow ribbons. The heads of tiny yellow chickens, should be peeping out of the egg, as if they were just breaking the shell. Attached to the necks of the chicks should be violet and yellow ribbon leaders, arranged alternately, and passed to the place cards of each small guest. The cards will consist of diminutive oblongs on which tiny yellow chicks and violets are painted, with a quotation about flowers and Easter.
The paper egg center piece will contain dainty souvenirs of the occasion, which may be pulled out during the interim between the luncheon and dessert or after all the food has been served.
In the center of the table make a nest of smilax and fill it with pansies and saucy little egg-shell faces, painted or sketched in India ink. Their faces may represent demure little maidens, popular cartoons or little creatures from the woodlands. These odd little egg people, peering from the smilax nest, will furnish the children with a great deal of amusement while they are eating, and will afterward make appropriate souvenirs.
The menu card at each place will be in the shape of a snow-white swan, cut of deckled paper. The head and wings are cut in one piece, and the tail in another. After printing the menu in violet ink on the tail, the bits of yellow and violet baby ribbon attached to it should be passed around the neck of the swan, which will hold the head in position with that proud curve for which the swan is noted.
These menu cards may be purchased if one is not handy with scissors and pen. The list should read:
Menu
Chicken Sandwiches
Apple Salad
Cream Cheese Eggs
Olives
Egg Punch
Easter Eggs
Angel Sugar Nests
Ice Cream
Assorted Nuts
Candy
Fruit Phosphate
Cake
Cut the sandwiches in egg-shapes before serving them.Individual salad made of apples should be served with them in white paper cases tinted yellow and violet and imbedded in leaves of parsley. Roll the olives in powdered sugar, to resemble eggs. Cream cheese, eggs can be made out of cottage cheese, mixed with cream and rolled into the shape of eggs additionally. Each one should have a large walnut meat pressed firmly into the side of the "egg." Serve on crisp curled lettuce made into a nest. The punch will be simple egg-nogg, of which most children are fond, with nutmeg, vanilla and fruit syrup flavoring.
Easter eggs make an appropriate dessert, wholesome enough to satisfy the heart of a hygienist, and yet delightful to all children. They are made of velvety blanc mange or sparkling translucent jelly. Serve these either piled in a nest of stifly whipped cream or accompanied by a boat of sauce. The prettiest way is to serve an old-fashioned bird's nest in jelly.
To make, empty the contents of egg shell through a fair sized hole in the large end. Rinse the shells and set upright in a pan of flour or cracked ice, if gelatine is used. Fill with the jelly or blanc mange, and when cold and firm peel the egg shell from around it. A pint of jelly will usually fill six, if colored eggs are preferred, use the color paste which is sold by grocers, and which is perfectly harmless. Harlequin eggs may be made by using remnants of different colors, letting each one harden, then adding another color, until the shell is filled. Bewitching rainbow effects will be the result.
To make the nest, use a mould of jelly partly full. When hardened, pile gelatine eggs on top. Arrange over and about them a suitable quantity of "straw" yellow sponge sugar, which any confectioner can supply, or orange peel cut in tiny shreds. Angel sugar nests may be made out of angel food, cut round, and with a depression in the center. This cake should be piled high with candy eggs in all colors. The ice cream may be served an egg mould. A simple and harless phosphate may be home-made, and should in the shape of eggs, with the aid of consist of the juices of oranges, lemons and pineapple, with sugar water and cracked ice added.
Make the cake in the shape of a big egg and frost it yellow. Surmount the cake with tiny yellow and violet candles to light as the cake is being presented and after the first course of sandwiches, salad and relishes clear the table for the chick centerpiece. This impressive "chicken pie," made of yellow and violet crepe paper and covered with artificial chicks is set in the center of a hay or straw arrangement quickly assembled in the center of the table. Violet and yellow ribbon leaders should be placed within reach of each guest around the table. These leaders are tied to the souvenir egg cups, sprayed with hand-painted pansies. Each child's place setting should consist of a gilded egg with corresponding initials of the guest along with a diminutive nest of green moss on top of a plate, piled high with candy eggs off to one side of the dessert plates. Serve the cake and ice cream and wait for the children to finish before encouraging them to pull their ribbon leaders at your signal, whereupon they will be rewarded with amusing little snapping bon-bons.
After luncheon, organize an egg contest as a surprise event. Present a large hen's egg and ask the children to guess how large the circumference of the egg is. Give everyone time to answer and then reward the closest guess with a prize in the shape of a papier mache chick or something similar.
A ping pong or small billard table will make an excellent "lawn" on which to roll the colored Easter eggs, which will be provided by the "host child." A game may be made of the egg-rolling and prizes offered. (edited version)
A contemporary presentation of a children's Easter party table.
A display of Jadeite Fire King in an antique
shop. Rarer blue Azurite milk glass tableware is also shown.
Jadeite (kitchenware), also known as "Fire King Jade-ite", is a type of glass tableware made of Jade-green opaque milk glass, popular in the United States in the mid-20th century. A blue variety called "Azur-ite" was also produced for several years. Jade-ite and Azur-ite were both produced by Anchor Hocking. It should not to be confused with jadite, a green jade-coloured shade of vaseline glass product made in the early 20th century.
The "Jadeite Fire King" brand was first produced by the United States glassware firm Anchor Hocking in the 1940s. Most of Anchor Hocking's output of Jadeite was between 1945 and 1975. A durable product in a fashionable color, it became the most popular product made by Anchor Hocking.
The glassware's popularity also makes it an affordable and popular
collectable today. Reproduction items are produced today by various
manufacturers. Fire King Jadeite is still produced in reproduction lines
by Anchor Hocking, which designs variations into its reproductions so
that they are not mistaken for originals, to maintain the integrity of
the genuine status of original Jadeite articles.
Jeannette Glassware was a United States manufacturer of green milk glass tableware similar in appearance to Jadeite Fire King. Kitchenware in other materials, such as aluminum canisters and bread
containers, were produced in the mid-20th century in the same shade of
Jadeite green, to match the glassware. White milk glass is an opaque or translucent, milky white or colored glass, blown or pressed into a wide variety of shapes. First made in Venice in the 16th century, colors include blue, pink, yellow, brown, black, and the white that led to its popular name.
Decorative pedestal milk glass bowl.
First made in Venice
in the 16th century, colors include blue, pink, yellow, brown, black,
and white. 19th-century glass makers called milky white opaque glass "opal glass". The name milk glass is relatively recent. The white color is achieved through the addition of an opacifier, e.g. tin dioxide or bone ash. Milkware was made into decorative dinnerware, lamps, vases, and costume jewelry, milk glass was highly popular during the fin de siecle. Pieces made for the wealthy of the Gilded Age are known for their delicacy and beauty in color and design, while Depression glass
pieces of the 1930s and '40s are less so. Perhaps one of the most
famous uses of opal glass (or at least the most viewed example) was for
the four faces of the information booth clock at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.
Build a miniature pond scene at the center of a children's
Easter table.
Every trick and surprise of the table decoration is appreciated by children who possess special aptitude for absorbing every tiny detail; nothing seems to escape their scrutinizing attention.
A comparatively inexpensive idea is to place a table mirror, the larger the better, in the center of the table and fringe it with greens. Watercress makes an attractive border; so does smilax and asparagus or maiden-hair fern. At intervals station miniature artificial trees. In the center place little goslings, setting several among the greens. Fill a toy boat with wee chickens, out of consideration of their non-aquatic abilities. The chickens and goslings may be purchased for mere pocket change at a local toy shop.
More realistic, of course, would be a wide, low dish, filled with water, having fuzzy yellow creatures floating upon the surface. Daffodils, crocuses or jonquils laid at intervals among the green would add a picturesque touch.
You needn't display your eggs in baskets only. This year I put my decorative eggs from past Easters into an antique wooden box that has an enormous handle and old rusty nails.
Wood shavings would look more attractive than Easter grass,
but, my husband has not been working in his shop much this winter.
So, I had to make due with what was on hand.
Here is a side view of this old wooden box. It is falling apart,
so I only use it for special occasions.
The box looks nice on my old Welsh cupboard, I think.
For many years I have assembled Easter egg trees from scratch. In part this is due to the lack of them that may be purchased. I do have an artificial Easter egg tree that you will see in a later post after I have decorated it. This year my youngest begged for a "real Easter egg tree" similar to the ones she grew up with. As you can see by clicking on the photo below, this one is made with real branches that have been manipulated with great industry. If you have access to lovely branches that need pruning, it is totally unnecessary to paper mache over the branches. Unfortunately, this year I was unable to find suitable branches for such an assembly. The branches that I used were those that I picked up off of my front lawn after a early March storm. These were fragile and uninteresting at best. So, I decided to improve them myself, thereby, demonstrating that one can have only a few options and still create a truely lovely Easter display.
Left, are the river rocks brought to me by an Easter guest one year. These are highly unusual quartz. I have saved them for many years and I think they will indeed become a traditional inclusion in my Easter decor. Next, I have photographed an old ceramic pot that has very decorative raised designs. I love the patina on the pot and it also goes with the colors on the walls of the study area where I will be displaying my Easter egg tree. In the middle, you can see I have very little to work with in terms of nicely shaped branches and these are falling apart as well. In the following photo, I have begun to hot glue and tape my little tree. Last photograph, I completed the shape as it pleased me and also assembled the mache covered branches into my ceramic pot between the river quartz. This process took approximately three hours. I only need now to hot glue the pink silk, floral buds onto the little egg tree to complete it's final look.
I layered onto my branches masking tape and then brown paper with tacky white glue. The finished tree structure is really quite strong. I could probably save this little tree for a few more years to use in displays if I wanted to. A few trimmings and a little hot glue are not normally worth the storage space to me.
Young teens could craft such a project and create even more elaborate additions. Next year I will include some more examples of egg trees for my visitors to think about crafting for themselves, but for now this classic version will suffice.
On the far left you can see the finished Easter egg tree. Center, a closer view. Right, a close up of the Easter figurines below.
A few things included on this egg tree are tiny white doves, Easter lilies, birds, and very light weight Easter eggs. The pink silk flowers and rustic ceramic pot are complemented by the brick colored walls and concrete counter tops.
St. Diego, the founder of the first California mission in the South, should be the patron saint of all good housekeepers. The tale runs that he did so spiritualize the menial routine tasks of the Franciscan kitchen where he served that the angels came and took over his work.
Murillo's painting, sometimes known as "La Cuisine des Anges," is the most inspiring mural decoration for the kitchen that we know of. Noble angels with meekly folded wings do draw and carry water and prepare the meat. Demure sweet girl angels gaily use mortar and pestle for the grinding of the food. And tiny cherubs, sitting on the floor, as they should pick over vegetables and fruit with joyfulness. and the mighty ones, the directors and father superiors, they witness with uplifted hands and abashed hearts, "The Miracle of St. Diego."
This picture hangs in the Cloister Walk of the Glenwood Mission Inn, at Riverside, California, and there is besides a picture of the saint giving bread to the Indians, and a statue of him with "a spoon in hand" --the symbol of his office.
A bread giver, one who goes with "a spoon in the hand," and love and humility in the heart--surely in these days when the world is so hungry in body, mind and spirit, the good St. Diego and his miracle has a revivifying Easter message for all of us, and especially for those whose privilege it is to nourish others, whether it be by providing daily bread for one's own family or for those across the world; or by feeding another's mind with a new thought about world old problems; or raising high the torch of one's own family or for those across the world; or by feeding another's mind with a new thought about world old problems; or raising high the torch of one's spirit to light another's path.
We commend to you this St. Diego, the patron of the Institute from now on! Only those can hope to have angels in their kitchens who have a true ideal of service in their own hearts! by Anne L. Pierce
Above is a unique 3-D, memorial, cross craft for Sunday School students, grades 3, 4, and 5.
I glued the egg carton parts to a sturdy piece of cardboard and left my construction to dry overnight. Then, I used a toothpick to gently poke many holes into the mache carton cups so that I would be able to insert the silk flowers later. Give students a wide variety of discarded old magazines and recycled paper to tear into small pieces. Glue these randomly to the background of the cross picture to assimilate foliage. Then, dismantle a spray or two of silk flowers and poke these buds into the holes on the cross. All the while adding a generous application of tacky white glue to the ends of each flower before pushing it into each hole. Leave this project to dry over night. In the end, each student will have a unique, three dimensional cross to decorate their home with for Easter Sunday.
Before its invention, eggs were carried in egg baskets. The egg carton was invented in 1911 by newspaper editor Joseph Coyle of Smithers, British Columbia, to solve a dispute between a local farmer and hotel owner in Aldermere, near present day Telkwa, in British Columbia, over the farmer's eggs often being delivered broken.
The egg carton "box" was further developed by H.G.Bennett (Riseley
UK) during the 1950s and became the norm for egg transportation during
this period.
Unlike many products, trademarks and advertisements for egg brands
are usually printed on the food container itself rather than on a
separate container (as with breakfast cereals). This single-layer, distinctive packaging distinguishes egg cartons from different producers or quality on the retail shelf.
Students will need crayons or magic markers to color their eggs and chick for this picture project. They will also need scissors, white school glue, a print of the Easter chick template below and one sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 inch construction paper for their background.
This project also calls for the use of brass, paper fasteners.
Some students may insist upon the construction paper being green or light blue because their thinking in art is more concrete or literal than their peers. Or, it may be that all of your students will choose these two colors depending upon their perspective. Do not insist, however, that students use green for grass or blue for the sky, if they choose not to. Children differ greatly when it comes to the interpretation of "how" art should look. Some students are more abstract in their thinking than others and there is certainly nothing wrong with this.
The idea of "Easter grass" is also loosely interpreted by manufacturers of the product. All types of Easter grass, be it plastic or shredded paper, is sold in the market place, in every color imaginable and you may wish to supply this for added dimension in your picture; in the pictured example, mine is drawn.
Eggs are also painted with an endless variety of colors, designs, and pictures. Some of your public school children may even include religious imagery on their eggs.
Do not dictate or prescribe their choices. Remember that freedom of speech is only limited for teachers in public schools because they are paid by so many people, from all walks of life, who have many different beliefs. These limitations attributed to teachers are not the same, however, for the children that they teach. Therefore, it is neurotic to overreact to a student's choices concerning how they desire to represent the Easter holidays. If some of your school children include religious imagery for this project, you needn't make such a fuss. They have a right to their cultural ethnicity, opinions and creative endeavors. If you expect differences, then you will not need to overreact to unusual choices. I have left the eggs blank so that the children constructing and coloring the project may choose to decorate their own eggs as they wish.
The black dot on the template is where you will need to poke a hole and insert a brass, paper fastener. Make sure that, when your students are ready to paste their eggs to the background sheet of paper, they do not paste above the small black line noted on the template. The upper part of the egg needs to be left unpasted in order to accommodate for the spinning chick!
Students will need to print the above template out, cut and transfer the design onto heavy cardboard. By these means, students will learn about the making of templates and how basic patterns are designed. Teachers may choose to group students at tables so that one set of templates may be made and shared between three or four students. I never hesitate to add this step into an art project because students learn so much information about "how" to process through the designing of things. However, I would eliminate the step altogether under some conditions.
Easter hatching chic template.
Teacher's sample of the hatching chic Easter egg craft.
In this teacher's sample I should note that the egg design on the right is original to it's former publication. Easter egg crafts from 100 years ago are far more elaborate graphically speaking than they appear today. This is the result, I believe, of artists immediate association/familiarity with Ukrainian immigrants at that time. Today, most folks immigrating from that area of the world to the United States are Muslim. Wouldn't it be interesting to do research on graphic history with your kids? Perhaps that should be my next big art history lesson?
Bunnies should use caution when prepping their eggs.
The
Easter egg and that ubiquitous little Easter hare that defies all the natural
laws governing mammals are well known to childish fancy. What child has not
discovered on Easter morning a whole basket of beautiful pasque eggs and just
missed the sight of the little Easter hare that laid them? He is almost as
familiar a household personage as Santa Claus. Long hours have the children
watched in the woods for him, only to go home and find they have just missed
his visit there, and there are those beautiful eggs he left behind, in pink,
pale blue, yellow and all the colors of the rainbow, some of them
parti-colored, some painted with roses and some tied with ribbons. Of late
years this enterprising little animal has gone far as to leave china eggs
filled with bonbons, and that he leaves them there is no more doubt than that
Santa Claus comes down the chimney on Christmas Eve, and who is so disloyal as
to doubt that?
There
are various ways of preparing Easter eggs that give so much delight to little
ones. The most elaborately decorated eggs should be emptied and washed of their
contents before they are prepared. This is the most economical as well as the
most satisfactory way to do: Pierce a small hole through each end, blow out the
contents, wash the shells and leave them for several days to dry. Some eggs
shells may be gilded, some silvered and some painted in oils. Simple gifts such
as are suitable at Easter time may be conceded under these eggs.
Plain
boiled eggs, such as are served on the Easter breakfast table, may be easily
dyed with vegetable dyes, which can be procured at caterers or dealers in
confectioner’s supplies. It is not in good taste to make these eggs eaten at
the breakfast table especially elaborate. The elaborate eggs are those which
are supposed to be found incidentally after breakfast, on Easter morning, and
are for the amusement of small children. A dish of pale green, white and yellow
eggs at one end of the table or robin’s egg blue and pale yellow and white at
the other end gives the breakfast table a festive appearance. It is easy enough
to prepare a few eggs in each of these colors to obtain this effect. It is a little
difficult to get a good green in eggs. Owning to the quantity of lime in the
shells all eggs do not take this natural green color as some others will, and
it is better to color eggs a simply as possible than to use any powerful dyes
when eating them later.
It
is possible to decorate more ornamental eggs of which the contents have been
blown out. Eggs may be prepared weeks before Easter and may be hidden away
until the eventful morning. These simple eggshells when decorated in natural
colors using roses or forget-me-nots and each strung on a fancy ribbon will
last a long time, if taken care of.
The eggs of nearly all ordinary birds, from the gigantic ostrich, whose
shell is firm enough to be set in silver, to the smallest bantam, where at one
time represented in many shops at Easter time. These were decorated, to hold
various kinds of candies or for ornamental purposes. You will net to be
diligent to find decorative eggs like these in antique shops or vintage resale
in time for Easter if you live in the United States, for it is nearly impossible to find these mouth-blown, decorated eggs for sale. When my children were young, there was a chocolate shop down the street that sold these but that was highly unusual.
The decorative possibilities of Easter time are numerous as tradition makes hares, doves, chicks and butterflies, as well as lilies and spring flowers, appropriate attendants upon the festival. Of late years little kittens, squirrels and ducklings have been added to the list and are sometimes given for variety's sake as favors at Easter luncheons and dinners instead of rabbits and chickens. Butterflies, emblematic as they are of the awakening of spring, make particularly appropriate favors, says the New York Tribune.
Bunnies prefer cake eggs for Easter dining.
large yellow butterflies as favors, with a centerpiece of spring ferns and catkins, make a delightful color scheme, for Easter time. The catkins are usually a mass of feathery yellow blossoms. As far as may be, a pale green should be the predominating color, the yellow in the favors and catkins being merely attractive high lights. The china may be white and gold or white, with delicate decorations on it in green.
The menu should as far as possible be suggestive of spring or, in other words, seasonable and not in any pronounced color that will be out of harmony with the green and yellow tints. Lamb loaf, decorated with squares of mint jelly, makes an attractive piece de resistance at a simple luncheon, or slices of lamb may be masked with mint aspic allowed to harden into a nice mold and then served upon boiled "artichoke bottoms," seasoned with French dressing, and finally arranged around a mound of peas or asparagus dressed with mayonnaise. Tiny sprays of mint may decorate the dish or if preferred, the mint sprays may appear in a plate of mint sandwiches.
For a dinner a stuffed breast of veal with watercress is attractive or a crown roast of lamb with mint jelly. A salad of spinach, peas or asparagus may be served in paper cups.
A pistachio ice cream, tinted a delicate green and ornamented with snowy whipped cream, may be used. At this season some hostesses may not care for a dessert. In that case a delicate grapefruit sponge may be served. It is made by adding a beaten white of egg to a grapefruit jelly just before it congeal. The pale green of the jelly may be brightened by adding a little green coloring matter. Add a little extra sugar, so that it may be appropriately served with ornamentations of whipped cream, cream hardly being appropriate with a sour jelly.
A genuine diplomatic pudding is also an attractive dessert. It is like the ordinary diplomatic pudding except that a white Bavarian cream is masked by a green jelly, each flavored appropriately. The dessert should be prettily decorated with pistachio nuts and angelica and whipped cream.
Stephanie Rose presents Balducci's
Easter Lunch Demo for WUSA-9 TV.
Easter Menu from Balducci's, 2007
Creamy asparagus soup
Crab cakes
Slow Roasted Chicken in Wine and Herbs
Fingerling Potatoes Tossed with Garlic and Rosemary
All of the thirteen pictured objects may be described by words of equal length. When these thirteen names have been rightly guessed, the central letters will spell certain objects that are very numerous today.
Left, the bow at it's best. Center, a prize winner. Right, tiny rose buds on a round form.
Which shall it be the gaudy tinsel-decked form filled with candy or rather questionable value, or the Easter basket that combines present beauty with future worth? When planning the basket for the gift, it is undeniable that there should be something more than a combination of much money and little taste; indeed, it is better to have a little less of the former, and by emphasizing the latter, make the Easter basket a gift worthy of the thought.
A stroll through any basketry department will unfold hundreds of shapes to your eyes--forms so lovely in color and variety that the specially "seasonable" baskets of greens and pinks will be rejected to the past, when beauty was not so much insisted upon.
From the dull shades that have the advantage of affording a harmonious background for any color, a receptacle for the gift (it may be a plant, flowers, or candy) can be evolved that will stand for the best in this line.
With green leaves from the flower counter, and pale yellow satin ribbon, a spray of tiny rosebuds it is possible for any woman who has the knack of tying to decorate a superior basket. The basket form (left) pictured above is decorated with three or four loops of ribbon for the making of each bud. Notice the attractive line that trails around the shapes in graceful abandon.
On the bucket-shaped wicker basket, center, a larger rose and bud are used. The petals are made separately of two pieces of silk, and stamens make up the attractive center. Large leaves are placed between the silken forms. The result is particularly pleasing.
The high standing basket (right) above shows the effective use of a bow--not the stiff large form that spells yards of expensive ribbon, but the soft French bow, secured by twisting the ribbon before tying. From this, a few satin roses and green leaves follow the weave up to the top.
For those who prefer the undecorated form, a round basket filled with fresh eggs contains no headaches for the fortunate recipient. It is a gift for an invalid that will bring the thought of the giver in tangible form. If for the little boy or girl, a morning spent in decorating the eggs with faces, or colors, will fully compensate for the lack of the sweets that usually result in vain regrets.
It is hardly necessary to suggest that each of these baskets will fit into a niche when the Easter season is no more. For the porch, the sewing table or the library shelf they will supply just the tangible reminder that we are improving in the appreciation of the beautiful. A basket selected and decorated in this fashion will be received with as much joy as the coming of the springtime.
Creating an Eco-Friendly Easter Basket by Sunday with Sarah
This miniature basket is woven using a braided rag rug method. To make a basket the size of the one pictured here you would need:
A braided length of yarn measuring approximately one yard; use three colors of any yarn or embroidery floss that you may have on hand.
You will also need thread and a needle.
masking tape
You will also need some kind of a spool like form; I used a toothbrush container.
Above is a pictured sequence for making the basket. If you click on the photo it will look larger in a new window. As you can see in the second frame, you will need to work the braid in a spiral pattern until it is roughly the size of a small coin. Whip stitch the shape as you go with the needle and thread. The color of your thread will be exposed so choose that shade wisely. I chose a shade of pale grey because I liked the way that it looked. Some of you, however, may choose to conceal your stitches by matching them to the yarn colors.
Loop the two ends of a piece of masking tape together and press it firmly to the end of your basket's temporary form and then mount the coin sized bottom of your miniature basket onto the the form. Now, as you spin and sew together the sides of the braided yarn to itself, the shape of the basket walls will begin to form. Soon, you will have a tiny basket fit for an egg. After you have crafted the basket to the size that you desire remove it from the temporary form. Add a handle by looping the remainder of the braided yarn from one side of the basket to the other, sewing these in place. You can always add more braid into the basket design with a threaded needle should the basket appear longer on one side.
Far left, cut egg shapes from cardboard. Center, notch around it's edges. Right, weave yarn back and forth to make a design all your own.
A simpler weaving exercise may be accomplished by younger students by weaving yarn around the perimeter of a cardboard egg. In this way teachers or parents can also involve children of multiple ages, both young and older, in participating in decorating an Easter egg tree or display.
