Today candle making belongs to old, historical crafts. In the past wax has been used (still is sometimes) in art, in metal casting – producing bells, in medicine – dentistry, in cosmetic for making all kinds of ointments etc. Big amounts of beeswax had been used in armour industry.
In 19th century the first most popular wax has been made from petroleum – paraffin. This wax was very cheap, but by no means can such wax offer the same qualities of pure beeswax ...
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Hand made dolls filled with sheep wool - Waldorf Dolls
A doll is the only toy, out of many, which represents a picture of man. A doll helps a child to grow into the world and its relationships. Therefore a doll plays an important role for both girls and boys and it does become important which doll we choose for a child.
Why home-hand made dolls?
A lot can be influenced by making a doll ourselves. We can choose the material, the doll’s appearance and another important aspect of hand made dolls is the living energy being put inside the doll by our work, our concentration and our love towards the child. When a doll undergoes an ‘accident’, it can be easily repaired and that is not always possible when a doll is bought and made out of plastic. When a leg breaks off the plastic doll, there is often not much we can do anymore. Dolls which are sawn can be mended nearly all the time. What is really asked from us as adults is to make the time and to find enough patience. That is a big treasure in our culture nowadays - culture ‘for one use only’....
The first findings from sheep wool were felted products. Through felting one makes thick textile folded from animal fibres, mainly from sheep wool but also hair from dogs or rabbits are used. The fibres are tightly pleated and twisted over each other. The best known and the eldest way of felting is done by using animal fur, hot water and constant pressure. Even today we can find places in Asia, where people use this technique for making carpets or their dwellings.
Nowadays sheep farming is quite popular in our country, but difficulty comes with purchase of sheep wool and its further use. Purchasing of sheep wool has many disadvantages so much of one's own wool is being wasted and depreciated. Instead we import very expensive sheep wool from New Zealand, which is than being processed and worked with. Such wool can be seen at many courses about spinning or other crafts....
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Sheep wool
Cultivating of sheep for wool has already been known in the past in nations of the Asia Minor. From here it spread to Egypt and Greece in antiquity and then to the rest of Europe in middle Ages.
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