Saturday, July 28, 2012

52 Weeks of Fairy Tales Week #28 - Jack and the Beanstalk

The last couple of weeks have been very busy, I got the bug to organize a few troubles spots around my home and have been very focused on finishing my organizing projects, that, along with all the summer heat, and I have gotten behind in my fairy tale crafting.  I am hoping I can get caught back up soon.

Week 28's fairy tale post was inspired by my garden, with bean season starting, I was very excited to read the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Jack and the Beanstalk is a classic English fairy tale.  The story is about a widow and her son Jack, they are very poor.  Their only income is the family dairy cow, but when the cow stops giving milk, Jack's mother sends Jack into town to sell the cow.  On his way Jack meets a strange old man who buys the cow for a handful of magic beans.

When Jack arrives home his mother is furious, and throws the beans out the window and sends Jack to bed with no supper.  However, overnight the beans grow a giant beanstalk, and in the morning Jack decides to climb it.


So Jack climbs...



and climbs...



and climbs...



until he reaches the sky, there he sees a giants house and makes his way to the house.


Jack arrives at the giant's house and is greeted by the giant's wife, Jack asks her for some food, and she invites him in.  When the giant arrives home Jack must hide from him.  The giant can still smell Jack though and says his well known phrase - Fee-fi-fo-fum!  I smell the blood of an Englishman.  Be he live, or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread!  Fortunately Jack is well hidden and the giant's wife distracts the giant with his money, which the giant falls asleep counting.  Jack steals the bag of gold, and sneaks out of the house and back down the beanstalk.

Two more times Jack makes the journey up the beanstalk, the second time stealing a hen that lays golden eggs, and the third time stealing a magic harp that sings.  The third time however the giant wakes up and chases Jack to the beanstalk.  Jack makes his way down quickly yelling for his mother to bring him an ax.  Jack makes it down just in time to chop down the beanstalk, and down it falls along with the giant who was climbing down, and the giant dies.

We find out that it was the giant that stole these items from the family in the first place, as well as stealing from other poor people as well, and in many versions it is the giant that is responsible for Jack's father dying. And so Jack is a hero, and he and his mother live happily ever after with their riches.

~

For my craft, I made a little Jack doll and took him out into the garden for his pictures.  The first picture he is in is one of my garden trees, the branch looked like a large vine he was climbing, the next pictures of Jack climbing are in my green beans, purple beans and lima bean plants.

His little green shirt is embroidered with a leafy green bean vine, and his hat is embroidered with the letter J for Jack.  I always have fun making these little bendy dolls and their outfits, and I knew I wanted to make a Jack and the Beanstalk doll clear back when I was planting my bean seeds.



Here are some of the beans we harvested tonight, the purple green beans look like they are right out of a fairy tale, I am excited to try them out tomorrow.


You can learn learn how to makes bendy wrapped wire dolls from the book by Salley Mavor, Felt Wee Folk, great instructions as well as clothing patterns.  You can learn more about this book through my Amazon link below.



Hope everyone is having a nice weekend!



18 comments:

  1. Gorgeous Jack doll! Great idea to use him climbing your beans, very sweet. I love Salley mavor's books, she is amazing.

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  2. Your little Jack is adorable, April! Love the embroidery on his shirt. Those are some gorgeous beans, also. They look state fair worthy. Not a blemish on them. They're too pretty to eat!

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  3. Thanks Danielle, Salley Mavor is a pretty wonderful fiber artist, I really enjoy her work. :)

    Thanks Jane! I am really happy with how well the beans are doing this year, the purple variety will become a regular around here too I think, I just love the color. :)

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  4. how fantastic to be able to act out the story with jack and your real live bean stalk, talk about truly bringing the story to life!

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  5. Such a nice little Jack for telling the story. Having the bean stalks and harvesting the beans made the story even better. You are blessed and gifted.

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  6. I love your bendy Jack! He is so well made, great work and the pictures are adorable!

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  7. Thank you for all of the wonderful and kind comments. I really enjoy working with wool felt making these little dolls. Hope everyone is having a nice week!

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  8. My this has always been one of my favourite Fairy tales and you made it so much more.. Great idea.
    Love the look of your delicious beans. B

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  9. This is so adorable! Totally made me smile!

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  10. jack is super cute. love this. made my day. thank you! (:

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  11. Very cool post! Thanks for coming by Bridgit's Bell and commenting. :00

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  12. Charming post. I love your little Jack doll and the beans look great.

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  13. Hi April, Found you blog and just love it--what
    a treasure chest! Your Jack is adorable and
    I love how you bring him to life! Thank you!

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  14. How cute is this post! Well done April -- gave me an early morning smile. Thank you. xo

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  15. Oh, I love it!! I love your Jack doll! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday, April!!

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