The Blog

This is a great story from an elementary art teacher that spreads fiber art joy as random acts of kindness and gets her whole school involved in this great Octopus tale…

It all began a few years ago.  I was wandering the Natural History Museum in Washington D.C. and walked into a dream – a dream that I could never have imagined!  There was every color, texture, size, shape….all there, crocheted together as a coral reef!  It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen!  If there is a heaven, this was mine!

At this point in time, I only knew how to crochet a blanket and was not so great at following directions, so I abandoned the thought of making my own.  Eventually I figured out how to make hats and decoded following a pattern.  I began to teach myself how to crochet sea creatures – fish, manta rays, octopuses, coral, plants, cuttlefish, crabs, sea anemones, the list goes on.  I was obsessed!  In a very short time, I had crocheted enough to fill a 55 gallon fish aquarium.  

I took it to the elementary school where I teach and my students fell in love too.  I tried to venture off into other creations, but there was something special about the coral reef and it’s endless possibilities.  I began to make small octopuses and was having fun experimenting with all the different color possibilities.  That started to take over my home art studio.  Having no idea what to do with all of them, I decided to share them.  I gave several to friends of mine and they were giddy.  Their faces lit up and they became children again, wearing them as finger puppets and talking to each other through their new friends.  I felt so much joy watching them.

This is when I decided to start giving them away as random acts of kindness.  The idea was to hide them with a tag that said “free to a good home” so that people knew they were up for grabs.  Hopefully it would bring joy to others.  I started this at school, along with an art station called Random Acts of Kindness.  The kids were making bracelets, bookmarks, toys, flowers, sketchbooks, and were spreading kindness beyond the walls of school.  They were able to see how their own art work could bring joy to someone else.