Arts and Crafts
Noa Scheinfeld Rudolf Steiner School
Waldorf Education has a threefold focus on educating a child’s hands, heart, and mind. From kindergarten through twelfth grade, the curriculum shifts focus from teaching through doing to teaching through feeling and finally to teaching through abstract thought. Yet throughout, all three capacities are recognized as crucial to developing an understanding of the world and a relationship to it. Over my fifteen years at the Rudolf Steiner School, the arts and crafts I have studied have constituted a crucial part of my education. They brought life to all my academic subjects, interwoven as dictated by thematic connections. For example, instruction in perspective drawing accompanied my study of the Renaissance, while proportion and geometry were emphasized in mathematics. In this manner, my hands were always engaged in studying that which occupied my intellect. Beyond their place in enhancing my academic studies, the arts and crafts—as explorations of different media and different styles—have allowed me to explore the world and my capacity to affect it. In this day and age, where the disconnect between us and our physical surroundings is growing with each new digital advance, handwork has the ability to close that gap. In encouraging me to interact with the physical world through my hands, the study of arts and crafts has nurtured the bonds between them and my heart and mind, fostering a connection between me and the universe that I have come to value greatly.
Fox (opposite top) Knit wool 2nd grade
Gnome (opposite left) Knit wool 1st grade
Cat (opposite right) Knit wool 1st grade
Slippers Felted wool 7th grade
Purse (opposite left) Cross-stitching 4th grade
Doily (opposite right) Crocheted cotton 2nd grade
Scarf (opposite bottom) Loom woven cotton 9th grade
Stool Handcut pine 9th grade
Mallet Carved hardwood 3rd grade
Flute Carved bamboo 5th grade
Cutting Board and Knife (opposite) Carved cherry and purpleheart 4th grade
Box Handcut maple and pine 10th grade
Salad Servers (opposite) Carved cherry 6th grade
Crested Finch Watercolor, 30in x 22in 8th grade
Gargoyle Charcoal, 23in x 23in 9th grade
Outer Space, Hubble Photo (opposite) Watercolor, 22in x 30in 11th grade Irises in Monet's Garden at Giverny Watercolor, 25in x 25in 10th grade
Seasons (opposite) In the style of Georgia O'Keeffe Stained glass 10th grade
Sketchbooks Hand-bound and marbled 11th grade
Child of the Harvest Clay relief 10th grade
Polar Bear (opposite) Carved marble 11th grade
Peaceful Dragonfly Chinese brush painting 10th grade
Summer Evening Chinese brush painting 10th grade
Romantic Poetry Candles Beeswax and pen 11th grade
Cherry Blossom Festival (opposite) Chinese brush painting 1oth grade