May 7, 2009

Fox & rabbit quilled miniature

Fox & hare, paper quilling

Some time ago I created a tiny cat and mouse using paper quilling. One of my Russian readers, a remarkable person, Waldorf educator and Waldorf doll artist suggested that they can be used for what she calls "tales on the palm of a hand". The main idea is that such miniatures can be created in the process of telling a tale, or hidden in a hand and then shown, as children watch and listen. The tale must be short and simple, not a classical fairy tale, but a story about familiar, everyday matters. She gives an example of such a tale with the cat and mouse (something similar can be done for these fox and hare):

— Hide the figures in the palm of your hand and begin: "Once upon a time there was a kitty. He was as black as coal. His tail was black, and his ears were black, and his paws. But his eyes were green, like spring buds."

— Open up your hand and show the kitty: "One day he felt very lonely and was looking for a playmate, when suddenly he heard a strange noise".

— Scratch something with your fingers making a noise: "Who's that?!"

— The little mouse shows up (from your hand or pocket), you tell how the kitty chases the mouse, and so on. You can even finish at this point. That would be enough for small kids.

For those interested in making the fox and hare characters with paper quilling, I used simple quilling shapes, made of hand-cut strips. For the eyes the strips are half the width of regular 3mm (1/8 inch) strips.

3 comments:

Archana said...

Thats a great idea.. I had fun reading the it... Im sure kids are going to love such interactive story telling.

The quilled animals are looking cute. its great how you use quilling to make so many different things.

Unknown said...

Fantastic idea and great story idea.
Love your cute little animals!

Inna D. said...

Archana, Colleen, thank you for your kind comments!