This time of year for me is not only for planning on paper for our fall homeschooling, but also time for de-cluttering, re-arranging the school room, and crafting some beautiful things to inspire us through the grades.  This fall, I will be teaching third and sixth grade with a cute little three year old in tow.

I wanted to make something to hang on the wall that represented Third Grade for our schoolroom and the picture of Moses and the burning bush was foremost in my mind.  There are images of this scene on the Internet and in iconography and I looked at many images before I decided upon an idea to use to paint with wool.

Making wool pictures is an easy project – all you need is plant-dyed wool felt for your background, plant-dyed wool roving, an iron and ironing board, and your imagination.  I order my plant dyed materials here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/mamajudes#   I don’t believe synthetically dyed materials will work  for this project.

Start with a background felt of your color choice.  Take the wool roving and tease it apart with your fingers.   Start to layer it in very thin layers into the shape that you want by taking small amounts of the fiber,  holding one end in place and stretching the fiber apart.  Pat everything down.  I suggest ironing the background with long periods of holding the iron and then layering in more fibers and the details that are more in the foreground.  The wool roving will then stick to the wool felt and you will have a beautiful, dreamy picture.

Here is a picture of this process; layering the background first:

I pressed this with the iron, and then added in the bush with its green leaves.  Then I layered in special red wool roving into fire on the tips of the leaves and pressed that.  The figure of Moses came last.

These pictures are easy to do and so full of possibilities!

Many blessings,

Carrie