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1 credit per course. Duration: 2 months per course.
"True art is an expression of the human being's search for a relationship with the spiritual, whether the spiritual longed for when his soul leaves the body, or the spiritual which he desires to remember when he dips down into a body, or the spiritual to which he feels more related than to his natural surroundings, or the spiritual as manifested in colors when outside and inside lose their separateness and the soul moves through the cosmos, freely, swimming and hovering, as it were, experiencing its own cosmic life, existing everywhere; or ... the spiritual as expressed in earth life, in the relationship between man's soul-spirit and the cosmic ... " - Rudolf Steiner |
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Using a single, barbed needle borrowed from commercial felting machines, wool fibers are tangled and compacted by repeatedly jabbing the needle into the fibers, forming three-dimensional felt sculptures bound only by one’s imagination. In contrast to traditional felt making methods that use water and friction, needle felting is also known as dry felting.
Lesson 1: Getting Ready for Felting Lesson 2: Simple Projects for Children and Beginners 1 Lesson 3: Simple Projects for Children and Beginners 2 Lesson 4: Projects for Experienced Felters 1 Lesson 5: Projects for Experienced Felters 2 Supplies needed and additional info here. |
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Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge." Yet, in the current climate of testing and even our own desires to teach our children “well," we are missing a great opportunity to foster the growth of this vital tool, imagination, in favor of filling our children with information rather than a sense of creativity. For most of human history wisdom was passed down orally, and while the printed word is a most useful and vital invention that has contributed so much to the spread of knowledge, we are hard-wired to hear and imagine; our brains grow and our minds expand as the spoken word falls from the lips of our teachers, parents, relatives and elders, enters our consciousness and joins us to the collective unconscious. If we continue to rely almost exclusively on the book as our primary means to pass on knowledge, especially for young children, we cheat them out of their human birthright, to creatively imagine for themselves the images we describe. Noting the rapid decline of language skills over the past two generations, child psychologists and educators are now actively championing storytelling as an ideal method of influencing a child to associate listening with pleasure, of increasing a child’s attention span and retention capacity, of broadening a child’s vocabulary and introducing a child to the symbolic use of language. As children hear a story they form pictures in their minds to go along with the words, each one different. As their imaginations receive exercise, minds grow, and become more creative and flexible.
Students enrolled in this course will be presented with and practice listening to classic folktales and fairy tales; then, guided by a mentor, students will learn to reflect on and analyze the stories presented, and finally practice storytelling themselves while receiving feedback and advice over the entire duration of the course. Supplies needed: notebook. Tools needed: audio recording device (computer, smartphone, etc.) |
Lesson 1: Getting Ready for Storytelling
Lesson 2: Practicing the Art of Storytelling 1 Lesson 3: Practicing the Art of Storytelling 2 Lesson 4: Advanced Storytelling 1 Lesson 5: Advanced Storytelling 2 |
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Learning or developing further the art of drawing is foremost an exercise in improving our observation skills. Drawing basic forms (like the ones pictured to the right) will help you see correctly. As you look at an object, no matter how complicated it may seem, the first step is to reduce it to its basic shape. Once this "seeing" of the shape is established, you will be able to draw the object correctly. Basic shapes, forms or "models" are cubes, cylinders, spheres, hexagons, cones, hemispheres, and pyramids. Try to observe your surroundings and identify the basic shapes on the objects you observe. In this course you will learn or develop further your drawing skills by progressing through steps of drawing objects from the mineral world, the plant world, the animal world and finally the human kingdom.
Supplies needed:
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Lesson 1: Drawing Geometric Shapes
Lesson 2: Drawing Rocks, Stones and Minerals Lesson 3: Drawing Plants and Trees Lesson 4: Drawing Animals Lesson 5: Drawing the Human Being |
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Mastering the fundamentals and various approaches to watercolor art is challenging and rewarding. Students enrolled in this course will learn about watercolor painting techniques for landscapes and portraits and more, through step-by-step tutorials and creative challenges. Enjoy learning how to paint with watercolors! In Waldorf education there is an emphasis on teaching wet-on-wet watercolor painting method which is an introduction to the beautiful world of color for students of any age . There are many ways to paint, but wet-on-wet watercolor is a dreamy, fluid, mostly formless painting method that allows the painter to fully experience colors.
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Mastering the fundamentals and various approaches to clay modeling is challenging and rewarding. You’ll learn about clay modeling techniques via step-by-step tutorials and creative challenges. Enjoy learning how to be creative with clay modeling!
Lesson 1: The Human Being Lesson 2: Animals Lesson 3: Flowers and Plants Lesson 4: Geometric Forms Lesson 5: Free and Imaginative Forms Supplies needed and additional info here. |
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Mastering the fundamentals and various approaches to oil painting is challenging and rewarding. You’ll learn about oil painting techniques for still life, landscapes/seascapes, architecture, abstract and expressionism and more, via step-by-step tutorials and creative challenges. Enjoy learning how to paint with oil paints!
Lesson 1: Simple Projects Lesson 2: Still Life Lesson 3: Landscapes and Seascapes Lesson 4: The Human Being and Architecture Lesson 5: Abstract Painting and Expressionism Supplies needed and additional info here. |
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Puppetry (finger puppets, small puppets and marionettes) are common within Waldorf schools because they are a living play imbued with inner imagination and fantasy. Puppet shows draw the child into a story, watching it unfold step by step, grow and change, and these pictures are taken right into the stream of life forces, without creating hard and fixed impressions. The draw forth from children their imagination and allow the story to take them where they need to do as far as the inner life working pictures. Students enrolled in this course learn how to design, make and perform with table puppets, finger puppets and marionettes.
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Music is an essential part of the Waldorf curriculum and permeates the school day from kindergarten through eighth grade. Music not only enlivens the spirit but increases a child's capacity for learning. Through the study of music, we learn to sensitize our hearing, allowing us to better listen to the sounds of the world and to each other. In the earliest years (kindergarten through first grade), the children sing primarily pentatonic melodies without harmony. In grade one, the interval flute and pentatonic flute are introduced and in second grade we add the pentatonic harp. Beginning in grade three, the students learn a more mindful approach to music, in keeping with their developing self-consciousness. In this grade, we move on to the diatonic flute and sing rounds and write music. This art course focuses on the art of singing. Practice singing children's songs, seasonal and traditional songs.
Lesson 1 - Traditional Songs Lesson 2 - Traditional Songs Lesson 3 - Children's Songs Lesson 4 - Seasonal Songs Lesson 5 - Seasonal Songs |
Equipment needed: audio recording device
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The history of quilts began long before European settlers arrived in the New World. People in nearly every part of the world had used padded fabrics for clothing, bedding, and even armor. With the arrival of the English and Dutch settlers in North America, quilting took on a new life and flourished. The term "quilt" comes from the Latin "culcita" meaning a stuffed sack. The word has come to have 2 meanings. It is used as noun, meaning the 3-layer stitched bedcovering. It is also used as a verb, meaning the act of stitching through the 3 layers to hold them together. A quilt is a cloth sandwich, with a top, which is usually the decorated part, a back, and a filler in the middle. Under the general term of patchwork are of 3 different types of quilts: (1) the plain or whole cloth quilt, (2) applique quilts, and (3) pieced or patchwork quilts. Learn basic to advanced quilting.
Items and supplies needed:
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Lesson 1 - Introduction to Quilting
Lesson 2 - Simple Projects for Beginners 1 Lesson 3 - Simple Projects for Beginners 2 Lesson 4 - Advanced Projects for Experienced Quilters 1 Lesson 5 - Advanced Projects for Experienced Quilters 2 |
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So far as we know. Rudolf Steiner gave indications for form drawing on three occasions. Each time he presented new elements out of which with some imagination one could build a structure of teaching material for the first five elementary grades - to the moment when the actual teaching of geometry begins. His indications illuminate entirely different aspects of form drawing, but these do not exclude one another. One should study them together, then one realizes that they do supplement one another. Rudolf Steiner gave the first elements of form drawing in 1919 in Stuttgart. in his basic courses for teachers he spoke for the first time about form drawing and described it as a means of educating the temperaments. With the participants. who were to be the teachers of the first Waldorf School. he worked out forms and colors for the various temperaments and led each of these over into its opposite. Rudolf Steiner suggests that on the very first day of school the teacher should have the children do certain color exercises, also have them draw a straight line and a curved line on the blackboard. He stresses the value, the pedagogical importance, of this exercise. This simple line drawing and its repetition the next day make a lasting impression upon the children. From the point of view of form drawing it is noteworthy that Rudolf Steiner lays out at once from the very beginning, for the children to create and experience, the two polaric principles of form: the straight, radiating line and the curved line, the first as an expression of thinking, the second as an expression of the will, seen from the point of view of the soul. Learn Form Drawing via this online course.
Lesson 1: Simple Forms/Mirrored Forms Lesson 2: Symmetrical Forms Lesson 3: Simple Symbolic Forms Lesson 4: Advanced Symbolic Forms Lesson 5: Planetary Seals |
Supplies needed:
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For the Independent Studies Art Course you design your own art course and work with a qualified Sophia Institute mentor on achieving your goals with this course of study. You are relatively free to choose an art project you are enthusiastic about and want to learn via this self directed study and practice. The art project need to be presented in outline to the Sophia Institute mentor and requires approval by the mentor. Write your own short story, collection of poetry, compose and perform music, create a short movie, publish a comic book or novel, delve into photography or pick up tight rope walking ...
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