Autumn 25

The weather is indicating colder days to come, before we know it it’ll be dark by 5pm! But Autumn has joyous days of celebration and fun, which include some of the under 5’s workshops at The William Morris Gallery, called Mini Morris.

Mini Morris
This October 16th we will be looking at natural dyes. Did you know William Morris used dyes from flowers and plants, he was an eco warrior before his time! During this period Morris was reviving the technique of using natural dyes, industrial manufacturers were using synthetics and harsher chemicals.

We are celebrating the wonderful folk art of Rangoli, a craft used during Diwali using rice, or, flower petals, or, spices, or, sand, or, lentils to create symmetrical patterns. Colourants were made from Vermillion, turmeric and tree bark. Rangoli is made during the Festival of Diwali, a Hindu festival of light, which will be celebrated this month. I have added a link to a video all about Diwali in the event:

https://www.scribbleandsmudge.com/new-events/2025/10/16/mini-morris-diwali-rangoli

We will try our hand at dyeing rice and making patterns in clay to take home. A fun, free session with song and activities for 2 to 5 yr olds.

November 20th we will be looking at colours and light. Another colourful session looking at Stain glass windows. Using colourful tissue paper and cellophane, explore the art of stain glazing and craft your very own vibrant window to take home. This event will be in Scribble and Smudge events with more details soon.
See: https://www.wmgallery.org.uk/event/mini-morris-colours-light/

Walthamstow Toy Library

Every Friday afternoon is Twins club! Everyone is welcome. I’d love to see you there.!

Topics this month include: Space, Book day of baby went to market, Harvest and Halloween. There will be Halloween parties at both sites ( Leytonstone and Walthamstow). 25th October Leytonstone Toy library Halloween trail in Langthorne park. 31st October a Halloween party at the Walthamstow site.
For details keep your eye out here: https://www.instagram.com/walthamstowtoylibrary/
Booking for the Langthorne trail here: https://ticketlab.co.uk/venue/4375/Langthorne-Park#/

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The RAF museum, London

You will see me crafting and doing activities here with an under 5’s session called Little Swifts.

Dates: October 14th, November 11th and December 9th. 10.30 a.m til 11.30 a.m

This month we are looking at animals in the collection. Free session for 2 to 5 year olds. in H6, booking is essential: https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/london/whats-going-on/little-swifts-2025/

Autumn

Autumn is already here! A time to smell the fallen leaves, perhaps collect a conker or two and harvest some fruits and vegetables. Its a lovely time to go outdoors and see how the world is changing colour. In fact I love to hunker down indoors in the evening. Here are some workshops and things `I’m involved with this month for your littlies.

There’s a bit of a foodie theme this month, starting at the William Morris Gallery, with a Tutti Frutti workshop. Thinking about Early Years themes is constantly on my mind, it’s nice to actually look at the world around us and bring them to the Gallery setting. There I am picking tomatoes, figs and being given veg from friends allotments/gardens and I started thinking how to link it to William Morris’s love of nature and design. Ive been dying to work with ‘Fruit’ wallpaper for a while, what better way than to link the print to actual fruits and vegetables, Bingo! I will be bringing toys from Walthamstow Toy Library on a fruit and veg theme, playdough ( I’m going to try and scent, wish me luck) and finding fruity themed songs to sing. I have been experimenting with all kinds of fruit n veg to see if they will print, look pretty, be small enough to be handled by little hands or even take a coating of paint. I’m hoping they will be surprised by the results and be able to do the whole process again at home if they wish. I cant wait to see the results.

Tutti Frutti

Printmaking techniques with fruit and vegetables to make a print pattern.

Also at Walthamstow Toy Library, this week we are celebrating the wonderful story of Handa’s surprise, then Harvest and a pumpkinlicious Halloween party! Book your tickets to come to the Halloween parties through this link: https://linktr.ee/walthamstowtoylibrary Thursday 31st October at Walthamstow Toy Library.