Handwork and Handicrafts - Waldorf Research Institute

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34 CHAPTER VII After the Lower School When the children leave the Lower School, they enter a new phase of development. They wish now to grasp the truth-content of the world. From now on critical thinking and independent judgment have a part to play in the way they prepare and carry out their handwork. What in this activity was formerly done more out of a feeling- and willexperience, and was still, though perhaps not always consciously, dominated by a sensitivity to the authority of the teacher, must now become conscious in the child and be brought into harmony with thinking. Inner conflicts are bound to arise, but in most cases these problems are resolved through the work itself. Once the young person has attained a certain balance of his soul-forces, his gifts and artistic capacities can begin to unfold. After puberty the young human being begins to take notice of actions as such. The love for work awakens in him. Now that an understanding for the work of mankind is born in him, the play of the child leads over to the work of the adult. 1 In these years, therefore, much freedom should be allowed in the choice of work. The resulting variety of work done in a class favors the progress of each individual child. New crafts are added. Basket-making, raffia or leatherwork, the knotting of hammocks—a job which the boys enjoy especially—can be done too. Tasks involving painting are also included. Steiner suggested the painting of posters. Book covers, lampshades and other things are painted with watercolor from the pot. Steiner did not want colored chalks to be used in the schools—though oil crayons, because they do not make dust, may be used for sketching. With regard to posters Steiner said: Children can be taught to write out a bill of exchange, so I do not see why they should not be taught to recognize the beauty of a beautiful poster. One should also be able to recognize an ugly, impossible poster. But people look at such things without getting infuriated. Artistic taste needs to be educated. The feeling for style needs to be developed ... What I mean is the ability inwardly to experience these things ... One must be able to experience a triangle, experience a rectangle—not be able to merely imitate it. But nowadays when someone makes a doll, he does it by imitating rather than by experiencing it inwardly. One must be able to experience from within how a doll laughs or cries. This should enter even into the way its clothes are made. The girls can make a doll and the boys a harlequin. Such a capacity to experience inwardly is fundamental to a right use of color in painting. A
35 bridge can be built from handwork to the crafts. There are countless small objects that can be painted. In the household there are things that should be made by hand and then painted. 2 Steiner pointed out the new directions for painting itself. Although what he created in the smaller cupola of the first Goetheanum in Dornach was destroyed by fire, the posters he himself made for the performances at the Goetheanum, executed in part by the painter Henny Geek following the indications and practical suggestions of Steiner, have been saved for us. Steiner advised: “Study the posters we are making together in Dornach.” In Dornach itself he said, with regard to these posters and programs: If you look at what has been striven after in the simple attempts we have made in the designing of programs, you will see that, though it is only a beginning, a beginning has been made in the release of colors from weight, in the experiencing of color as an element in its own right, in making colors speak. If it succeeds, then, as against the inartistic world-philosophy which would lead to the extinction of all art, an art will be created out of the free elements of color and of sound, an art freed again from the influence of weight. 3 Once when he was asked at the Waldorf School in Stuttgart how the children should move their brush when painting in watercolors, he said that it is best always to keep to one direction. He illustrated this by painting a signpost (Plate 1, figs. 4a, 4b), and showed also how it should not be done (fig. 4c). He said that in embroidery too one should always keep to one direction with the single stitches, whatever form is being made (fig. 5). On another occasion he explained that in carving and modeling one should always take into account the nature of the material in which one is working. Wood must be shaped differently from stone or iron, for example. When he was asked if this applied also to the use of colored materials for embroidery, he said: “No, here its purpose has to be considered.” In the Waldorf school much attention is given to the ways in which painting and embroidery can be connected. In such work there is scope for free artistic activity. There is, however, the danger that such work might begin to be done for its own sake and become mere “studio work,” a term used by Steiner in criticism of all work which serves no real purpose. This danger can be avoided if the children are given concrete tasks to carry out. If a tablecloth was being embroidered, Steiner wished it to express in its design the purpose it was intended to serve. Its future surroundings also had to be taken into account. Steiner once showed how a tablecloth, for example, can be brought into harmonious relation with the objects on or under it, when, on one occasion he pointed to two finished tablecloths and said: “This one should lie on a white marble table, and on the other there should stand a tall vase of flowers with long stems.” In this way he showed how the children’s taste can be educated in preparation for the time when they have homes of their own.
Page 3 and 4: HANDWORK and HANDICRAFTS From Indic
Page 5 and 6: HANDWORK AND HANDICRAFTS by HEDWIG
Page 7: CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . . . . . . .
Page 10 and 11: 10 to reproduce some of the indicat
Page 12 and 13: 12 color, but human beings will not
Page 14 and 15: 14 social life—the human being wo
Page 16 and 17: 16 CHAPTER III Handwork in the Kind
Page 18 and 19: 18 of the children. Each child is a
Page 20 and 21: 20 He then drew on the blackboard a
Page 22 and 23: 22 CHAPTER IV Phases of Development
Page 24 and 25: 24 so forth, should be done in a ve
Page 26 and 27: 26 relationship can often bring us
Page 28 and 29: 28 CHAPTER V The Line in Painting a
Page 30 and 31: 30 CHAPTER VI Handwork for Children
Page 32 and 33: 32 better to make a herd of chargin
Page 36 and 37: 36 Steiner also set such tasks as t
Page 38 and 39: 38 Plate 3 Fig. 20 (wrong) Fig. 21
Page 40 and 41: 40 The working together of art and
Page 42 and 43: 42 He made sketches of costumes and
Page 44 and 45: 44 remarked: “The place where we
Page 46 and 47: 46 Figure 12: Publisher’s sign dr
Page 48 and 49: 48 Figure 23: “Anthroposophie, Oe
Page 50 and 51: 50 Figure 34: Folder (cloth) for th
Page 52 and 53: 52 END-VIGNETTES Drawn by Rudolf St
Page 54 and 55: 54 CHAPTER X Indications Concerning
Page 56 and 57: 56 In Torquay he discussed the matt
Page 58 and 59: 58 CHAPTER XI Color in Clothing and
Page 60 and 61: 60 In a similar way he indicated, a
Page 62 and 63: 62 made it necessary, he would occa
Page 64 and 65: 64 CHAPTER XII The History of the A
Page 66 and 67: 66 a materialistic point of view, b
Page 68 and 69: 68 If one looks at the costumes rep
Page 70 and 71: 70 Under the influence of Augustus
Page 72 and 73: 72 is to come, point the way that m
Page 74 and 75: 74 Index to Plate 10 1. Part of an
Page 76 and 77: 76 Through anthroposophy the road t
Page 78 and 79: 78 APPENDIX I The Pedagogical Value
Page 80 and 81: 80 placed before him, through the a
Page 82 and 83: 82 Dr. Steiner: “The way a child
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84 organization to write in this wa
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86 but do not take individuals out
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88 Dr. Steiner: “Where it is not
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90 Dr. Steiner: “Spinning is part
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92 school. [The upper classes did n
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94 18. Teachers’ Conference, Sept
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96 children should learn to disting
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98 In a Berlin lecture, Dr. Steiner
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100 One should mention here that Dr
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102 most it could be decorated plas
Page 104 and 105:
104 Displays of Work Done by Studen
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106 reproduced by means of photogra
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