DIY Chain of life or birth chain
The 13th series is ready. Colors will differ from the photo as every dyeing session turns out a little different, but use the same schema.
Beads to make your own Chain of Life or Birth-Chain
Included:
- 144 beads with 12mm diameter - dyed with foodcoloring and liquid watercolors (in 12 labeled paperbags)
- 12 Birthdaybeads with 20mm diameter, natural wood, one golden
Optional - if don't have it at home:
- 1 little jar of bees wax polish, to give some shine to the beads (the beads won't be inert to salvia or water, but a little more protected!)
What you need:
- paper towel to take excess polish (you can polish before you thread the beads or after threading - before is easier to me - just take up some polish with your finger and apply it to the beads)
- a little bit more than 2m string - I love a flexible one like this
- Some kind of storage for the beads. You can use a teabox with 12 compartments or 12 jars for example. E
Instruction:
Chain of life:
Just around their birthday life and it's stations geht interesting. Using these beads to thread their life, they can get an idea of the time they have spend on earth. Their birth is represented with a big golden bead - then one bead for every month (in the respective colors) through their first year. The month of their first birthday is another big white bead. They can thread the beads as long as their actual age or further into the future.
After threading one can put photos or things near the chain, that represent certain stations. After completion of the work the child puts the beads and the thread in their storage and the next child can thread his or her life.
Birthdaychain:
Another way of using these beads comes from Nadine (Ökotussimama): She uses the chain as a "birthchain". She hangs the chain on a nice place and her children can put on a new bead every month. That way they always know how long / how many beads it takes before their next birthday and they always can look up, how old they have been last Christmas and so on.