More May Flowers

Not every groups members were able to sew their own flowers though several were surprisingly good at it.  We are lucky to have several volunteer playmates who work with us one or more days each month at some of the larger or work-intensive areas.  Sometimes the aides and nurses help us out too.  Of course, they are always welcome to play with us!

Even when a person has sight problems, we can still make the project fun and memorable. I worked with one player who has very poor sight and was able to create a flower for her with bright colors which she could see close up.  I added a few French knots in turquoise but she couldn’t see them.  So I added a bunch more and told her when she puts her fingers on those bumps to remember the color turquoise.  We were both very happy with my brilliant idea!  

As you can see in the slide show, there was no limit to the choices in colors or patterns chosen.  We used the triangle hair clips instead of pin backs for those who had problems with their eyesight or hand control.  A simple snap and the clip holds the flower in the hair or on the sweater.

Paper Making 101

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“If I had a flower for every time I thought of you…

I could walk through my garden forever.”

— Alfred Lord Tennyson

Joan Williams taught the playmates how to make paper using old scraps of typing paper, tissue paper, and colored napkins from a wedding.  After blending the scraps into pulp, it’s poured into a tub with water and then the fun begins as screens are dipped in, pulled out and drained.  A few squeezings and blottings, some flower seeds and dried petals pressed into the pulp, sunshine on the fountain and suddenly there is gift paper!  Like Magic. The idea is to send someone a note with the homemade paper and then they plant it and grow a flower garden!  It was educational learning about making paper, it was “green” because we used old paper from mail and packages. It involved choice making in selecting colors to use to make the paper and mostly it was great fun to splash around in the water and force the pulp back into a solid form.

Hand sewing felt flowers

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Playmates at Prince of Peace had a regular old-fashioned sewing circle with stories and laughter as they sewed felt shapes together with buttons and embroidery threads to make flower pins and hair clips.  It was a great community meeting.

Butterflies and Petal Poetry

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Celebrating Spring is easy in Florida as the grass is growing, the flowers are blooming and everywhere there are wonderfully colored butterflies kissing the blooms and tasting their nectar.   We asked the players to write on a petal what they saw in their gardens and we got some wonderful answers including one who wished to find a basket of money in her plants!  The petals were glued together into a sort of cohesive poem about spring.  As Karen pointed out, you could start anywhere and end anywhere.  The petals always seemed to be in the right place to make the poems work!

Next we tackled painting with acrylics which we hadn’t done before.  We were joined by Terri Hightower, the Plaster Fairy, who cast 90 butterflies for us.  They were so beautiful that one man was sure they were sugar castings like his mother did when he was a boy (he’s 96 now).

  The first group was carefully wrapped in oversized t-shirts and sleeves were rolled up…we’d dealt with children so we knew what we were doing.   Were we surprised!  These players are great painters and I think I got more paint on me than anyone else!  We soon abandoned all caution except to cover the tables and let the players free! 

Even if the eyesight is failing, the hand to brush coordination is enough for most to paint their butterflies in beautiful hues and patterns. We had some lovely abstract art on the wings.  I thought we’d have to tape brushes onto fingers for those with hand problems but they were way ahead of me….they used their other hand to help guide the first and they painted wonderfully! 

So this month, it was poetry for everyman and it was more about teaching us no to be so quick to think we know what we’re doing!