My 4-year-old son Django is fully into a “fairy house” phase. He loves putting his toy animals and fairy people in little houses and caves that he creates. While I was researching plans for building a life-size tee-pee in our back yard, it occurred to me that he would also love a mini teepee for his little people. Surprisingly, it was very simple, quick and super fun to make. I invited my 6-year-old friends Celeste and Kendra over to help us make a teepee, and they completed the entire structure in about 10 minutes; the decoration of the teepee took about 45 minutes.
Earth paints were used by Native Americans to paint their homes and teepees, crafts, clothes, face and bodies. These paints were collected from naturally colored clays and minerals in the earth, ground into fine powder, and then added to a natural binder.
Materials:
Natural piece of cloth (cotton or hemp works great)
5 straight sticks (about 12 to15 inches)
Twine or string
10-inch piece of cardboard
Glue
Natural Earth paints
Step 1: Cut a 10-inch diameter circle out of cardboard.
Step 2: Find five straight, thin sticks and cut/break them into 12- to 15-inch pieces
Step 3: Mark five dots, evenly spaced around the cardboard’s edges, and poke holes through them. (I poked some sharp scissors through and then twisted them back and forth until the hole was big enough.)
Step 4: Cut a long piece of twine and tie a knot around the sticks, a few inches down from the top.
Step 5: Position the sticks into the holes of the cardboard and push them through so a tiny bit of the stick goes through under the cardboard. Wrap the loose ends of the twine several times around the top and tie again to secure sticks.
Step 6: Put a dab of glue around the base of each stick.
Step 7: Cut out a piece of fabric using approximate measurements and the template above. Feel free to tweak these to best fit your teepee.
Step 8 (optional): Paint the floor of the teepee with Natural Earth paints.
Celeste painted a stone fire pit with roaring flames, and Kendra painted a beautiful sun design.
Step 9: Get creative and go wild painting your fabric! Simply mix water with the powdered paints and apply. Celeste and Kendra made leaf prints, toilet paper roll prints and also splattered the paint on.
Step 10: When paints are dry, wrap cloth around teepee and fold flaps inward and attach with a strip of glue or sew in place.
Django loved his new teepee and immediately decorated it with birds, rocks and straw and many different animals and fairy dolls.
Leaf Printing
Paint the underside of a leaf; press paint side down on cloth; cover with piece of scrap paper/newspaper; rub; pull off leaf
Toilet Paper Roll Printing
Dip the end into paint; stamp circles onto cloth; repeat.
To make a heart stamp, flatten your roll and press sides to crease; push one of the two creases inwards and secure it by wrapping roll with piece of tape.
Splatter Painting
Dip brush in paint; use another dry brush to tap on handle of brush so paint splatters downwards.
Leah Fanning Mebane is a mom, professional artist and owner of Natural Earth Paints LLC and lives in the beautiful mountains of Ashland, Oregon.
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