e-course results

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All these images were taken by my e-class students. The majority of my course participants had little to no experience in dollmaking. Each of them made a 45cm cloth doll in a four weeks e-course. Enjoy their stories!

A basket full of apples
(e-class result summer course 2011)


Bring warm clothes

Said Mrs Teacher

The day before

We went on a class trip

We took the bus

To the village

With baskets and backpacks

With blankets, sandwiches, thermoses

 

First the farmer

Showed us the apple trees

Cox Orange, Belle de Boskoop,

Ingrid Marie and James Grieve

(those were the names of the apples)

We climbed the trees

And shaked down apples

Red ones and green ones

And one with a maggot

 

Before we had

A picnic in the meadow

Some of us rinsed the apples

In a little well

(the maggots got angry)

Under the tree
In the shadow

We took a nap

And counted little clouds

Three of the girls

Went through the garden

And gathered flowers

And tiny snails

 

We filled our baskets 

With even more apples

For pie and juice 

and jelly and compote

We even made 

Shiny necklaces

From apple seeds

And bracelets

In the afternoon

Our parents picked us

Up like apples

With rosy cheeks

My tummy was hurting 

A little after all those apples

But else the class trip

Had been very nice

These were the dolls made in the summer e-course 2011. The graduation theme for the e-class was Apples, as you might have guessed already ;-)

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A Day by the Sea
(e-class results Spring 2011)

On our school trip 

Last friday 

We went to the Sea 

With the whole class

We brought blankets

And sunglasses

A spade, five towels

And a picnic basket

 We even brought

Two little ships

And sun shades 

And sturdy shoes

On our walk

Down to the beach

We followed the stream

That joins the sea

We also walked

Through lavender fields

That grow not far

From the ocean

Through marram grass

Along the reeds

We finally reached

The beach

 So lovely to sit

With sand between toes

And a salty breeze

Tousling our hair

We started to collect

Lots of sea shells

And shards of polished glass

That looked like diamonds

 

After some time 

We took out our blankets

And had a picnic

By the sea

But all of the sudden

One of us found 

A bottle - and guess what?

It had a message inside!

(...) On an island quite far

From this sunny beach

A dangerous pirate is waiting 

for boats to pass by (...)

 

Oh boy! 

That sounded scary!

Don´t worry,

Some of us said

(and entered a small boat that anchored nearby)

 

Just to make sure

That no pirates were close

They hoisted the sails 

And shouted out ship ahoy!

Fortunately

The boat didn´t move

Because the anchor 

Was way too heavy

 

You better should

Moor the boat

With a bowline, a a reef knot,

A clove hitch, the others said

 Then we started to build 

Sand castles and found

Three starfishs

And one old bottle cap

 

But when we sat

By the sea

And watched the waves

Something magic happened

Shortly before we 

Packed our bags 

To walk home 

Along the river

We saw her

 

The mermaid

(Later the teacher said that mermaids do not exist and our parents were laughing. 

But we saw her. Just for a moment. 

She was beautiful)

**

These dolls were the results from the Spring e-class 2011. As you surely have recognised, their graduation day theme was a maritime one ;-)



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Tuesday´s Field Trips (e-class dolls winter 2011) 

On the window sill

We keep lots of pots

Where we hide many 

Sunflower seeds in the soil

On tuesdays we use to

Go out on a field trip

This time we will spend

The day in the garden

We that means us

Our whole class

And Miss Teacher

And Lulu, the cat

First we read

In our books

About caterpillars

And spinach and snails

Then we walk down

The little alley

With our backpacks filled

With thermoses and sandwiches

 

 But before we

Take a break

We listen for a while

To the blackbird´s song

In a field of

White snowdrops

We get each a cup 

Filled with hot chocolate

It is lovely

To sit there all 

Quiet in the sun

Amongst bumblebees

Later we do

Some planting and fill

The pots with chard seeds and cress

With sweet peas and marigold

We water the pots

And a butterfly

Sits ten minutes on

A grape hyacinth

Some of us 

Collect pretty stones

And bring cushions

To the back porch

In the afternoon

We get some cake

(Our teacher is 

Quite good at baking)

I pick a bunch

Of daisies and sorrel

To bring them home

After school

In the evening

I am already looking

Forward to

Next tuesday´s field trip

(All photos from the winter e-class 2011)




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Delicious Recipes

(e-class dolls autumn 2011)

Last wednesday I invited all my friends for a baking day.
We have a long kitchen table and a big oven.
We have jars with vanilla beans and lavender sugar, with saffron and with cinnamon sticks.
We have three aprons and five potholders (the sixth was eaten by the dog last summer).

Sounds perfect, my friends said.

When the doorbell is ringing, the hot chocolate is ready to be served.
First we read recipes.
The boys want to bake lye pretzels and crispbread.
The girls want to bake macaroons and meringues, vanilla crescents and cinnamon biscuits.

In the end we toss a coin.
Macaroons, pretzel sticks, ginger bread and brownies is what we have on our list now.

First comes the dough.

Two cups of flour. Three table spoons sugar. Fifteen eggs. One pinch of salt.

Then we pour in milk and cream,
crème fraîche and soft butter.
And lemon juice.

Three of us are summoned to chop the nuts.
Walnuts, pine nuts, hazelnuts and almonds.
On the table our little red squirrel is sitting and we feed him with all the nuts.
Lucky us, he only cracks them and soon the bowl is filled to the brim.

Then we stir and we cream and we stir again, we whip and churn and whisk.
And then we even press the button of the red machine with the big beaters.
That is when the kitchen ceiling gets sprinkled with chocolate spots.

Then we roll the pastry.
The dough is sticky. And the rolling pin is heavy.
But in the end we succeed.

I choose a flower cookie cutter. Four of us want to make stars.
The boys start to cut out monsters with very long ears and three legs.
We cut out even a hippopotamus, a car, thirty hearts and a cookie that looks like a cactus.

In the end we have seventeen baking tins with 537 cookies and 18 pretzels.
Then it is time to heat the oven.
There are different numbers on the switch.
We are not sure which number to choose. But 220 looks good.

But when we take out the baking tins after half an hour, some cookies look very dark.
That is when we decide to make them pretty again.
With a lot of cocoa powder.
And sugar icing.
With whipped cream.
And strawberry sprinkles.
And the marzipan that mommy keeps in a can on top of the shelf.

After four hours all of us are sitting around the kitchen table.
We drink lemonade and hot apple juice. We drink peppermint tea and hot chocolate.
We eat macaroons and monster cookies.
We eat pretzel sticks and shortbread with sugar icing.
We eat all the almonds that we didn´t use for the dough.
Then we eat the strawberry sprinkles and cocoa powder with a spoon.
I use my finger for the cocoa powder though.
We eat meringues and gingerbread, brownies and aniseed biscuits.
And the marzipan which was left.

Then the doorbell is ringing and everyone gets picked up.

In the evening my tummy is hurting.
Mommy brings me a hot-water bottle.

Then she does the washing-up.
And then she discovers the chocolate spots on the ceiling.

(Next wednesday we will play something else, me and my friends)

(These dolls were the result of the e-class in October and November 2011)

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Our Summer Picnic

(e-class dolls August 2010)

It was a sunny day. We met in the morning, waved goodbye to our parents and then we walked down the meadow together with Miss Skicklig, our teacher (who had hayfever and a very red nose).Close to the farm, in the shadow under the oak, we took a little rest. In our picnic baskets we had cucumber sandwiches and chocolate, strawberries and cookies, meatballs and bottles with milk and tomatoes and crisp bread.

Miss Skicklig ran around with a napkin, she was afraid we would wipe chocolate on our dresses and pants. I bear responsibility, I bear responsibility, she said.

Everyone was there at the graduation picnic, except Lily Rose who had caught a cold and had to stay at home, drinking hot lemonade and wearing a scarf. We missed her a lot!

I wonder, said someone, if we could bring Lily Rose some of the yummy icecream and the waffles, someone said.
So stupid, someone else replied, the ice cream will melt before we even made it home!

So instead of bringing Lily Rose ice cream we decided to pick some flowers
and all the girls made little bouquets
and one even made a rosehip heart for her.

After some time all of us had so much cake that our tummies started to hurt and we decided to do something else.

Miss Skicklig said I bear responsibility, I bear responsibility and then she put on some sun lotion on her calves.

There was a little grove and in that grove the farmer would let the hens walk around.

It was fun to see them and one of their little chickens was so very curious and tried to hide in the pockets of our pinafores!

Then we took a ride. Miss Skicklig was very afraid when the farmer let her ride one of the ponies and was shouting all the time I bear responsibility, I bear responsibility!

But none of us fell off the horses and after the horses we even rode the goats and the farmer was laughing and we were lauhing too.

Then we played football on the meadow and we sat on the pasture fence
and cheered each other.
And then we sang songs and Miss Skicklig got a sunburn.

After some time we picked blackberries and three of us pretended that we had eaten some of the strange orange berries.

When Miss Skicklig saw us squirming in the grass, she hyperventilated  and yelled I bear responsibility, I bear responsibility! and then we laughed and she got very upset and said this is not a joking matter!

In the meantime, the boys started to throw with apples and strived with each other in who would be better.

It was good that Miss Skicklig didn´t see them, she would have gotten even more upset, I think.

Then we tried to behave and sat on the grass with Miss Skicklig who read poems for us. I tried to not fall asleep (which wasn´t easy) and all of us found it very boring.

After some time Miss Skicklig got very tired too and she asked us if it would be okay if she would take a little nap. We promised to be nice and she said I bear responsibility, I bear responsibility.

After some time we felt that we should do something else than just sitting on our picnic blankets while our teacher was asleep.
I bet you are afraid to climb the tree, one of the boys said.
Haha, we said. And before the boys knew what was happening, we climbed the oak.It was not only me, also the other girls climbed the tree and the boys were really impressed.
It was not so easy though with all of us sitting in the tree and even though the oak was big, it started to creak.

And all of the sudden there was a heavy noise - and the branch cracked with us sitting on it!!!

Miss Skicklig jolted up, screaming I bear responsibility, I bear responsibility!

And she ran down to the farmer and came back with a huuge bag of plasters and a bottle with castor oil. Even though we protested, she bandaged our feet and knees and said all the time I told you so but you didn´t listen.

Apart from the plasters, it had been a nice graduation picnic. Miss Skicklig looked a bit exhausted when we walked back home but I guess that was nothing else but a little sunstroke.
She gave us kisses and hugs when we said goodbye and she looked quite happy.
(And of course we hadn´t forgotten the flowers for Lily Rose, don´t worry)

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(all photos from the e-class in August 2011)