Yarn Art Three Ways: Portuguese Azulejos {Around the World in 12 Dishes}

It’s time again for my (this time only a bit late) monthly post for “Around the World in 12 Dishes,” the series in which each month participating bloggers travel the world with their kids by cooking a dish from another country and perhaps reading a book, doing a craft, or learning fun facts about it.

While soon I will be sharing a Portuguese dish we made, we had so much fun with our craft project that I wanted to share that first.  While doing research on Portugal, I ran across image after image of the beautiful glazed tile artwork called azulejos.  You can see for yourself these beautiful tiles in this photo essay of azulejos in Libson.  Azulejos show the Moorish influence in the Iberian peninsula, and this can still be seen in the geometric designs of many of the tiles.

Well, we recently returned from our extended trip abroad, so I wasn’t ready to do any tile work with the boys.  Instead, I decided we would do some simplified versions with yarn, taking inspiration from the beautiful azulejos designs.

I came up with two methods, while Monkey invented a third.  All were fun!

Method 1:

Make a pattern on the paper with glue then press the yarn into it.  Resist the temptation to rub the glue all over your fingers (or not!)

Method 2:

Pour paint onto the paper and make a design using the yarn as a sort of brush.  Tip: Since the yarn is relatively thin, it won’t hold much paint.  Instead, either make a little bundle of the yarn and/or pour a generous amount of paint on the paper.

This was the method I used with Baby:

Method 3 (Monkey’s method):

Pour paint on the paper and use it as a glue for the yarn.  (Do not expect this to dry anytime soon!)

Check out the other participating blogs to see what they have been cooking up:

Adventures In Mommydom, Afterschool for Smarty Pants, All Done Monkey, Crafty Moms Share, Maroc Mama, Creative World of Varya, Glittering Muffins, Kid World Citizen, Mermaids’ Makings, The Educators’ Spin On It and The Mommy Talks.

If you try a dish from Portugal, we’d love to hear about it! And don’t forget to download this month’s placemat and passport! You can also link up your dish or craft here to share your post on all the participating blogs: