Carrots Are Orange

Montessori Parenting & Learning

Home » Activities » Art » Creating an Evil Eye with Kids

Creating an Evil Eye with Kids

This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure .

My son’s teacher is from Turkey. She is lovely. A former aeronautical engineer, she decided to change careers to her passion: guiding children in a Montessori classroom. She is the type to appreciate thought and her students’ participation in the gift process. So, I sought help from a friend who is married to a Turkish man. She inspired me to create an Evil Eye with my son to give his teacher.

evil_eye_final

In Turkey, people created the Evil Eye Pendant to guard themselves from such not-so-well-meaning people with their necessarily evil eyes. The Evil Eye is worn or displayed to protect oneself from evil looks. It is actually a stone bead made from a combination of molten glass, iron, copper, water and salt, a combination of minerals and metals believed to provide a shield from the forces of evil. The symbol of the eye is regarded as a strong protector against evil forces in almost every culture of the world like Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist and Christian.

evil_eye_culture_activity

This activity was great for children, especially those young ones honing their fine motor skills. Additionally, smoothly adding culture, emotional & learning into the activity.

evil_eye_teacher_gift

I can’t take any credit for the tutorial. I researched online and found an amazing blog, Mich L. in LA, and her post on creating an Evil Eye.

Materials:

  • Jewelry pliers and cutters
  • Wire
  • Blue beads, light blue beads, white beads and a single black bead
  • Headpin
  • Ribbon, twine or string

evil_eye_bead_craft_kids

Approach:

I will let you visit Mich L. in LA for the detailed tutorial but the idea is to create concentric circles of beads in the color order seen in the above image. Then you have a single black bead, the eye, hanging in the center

The experience was a great that included my son in the process. It wasn’t perfect but I think his teacher was touched by his efforts. We decorated a tin can and placed the Evil Eye in it for her to open.

I also love these ideas for Evil Eye crafts:

 

Thanks for reading today. Leave a comment, I love hearing from you, and subscribe to my weekly FREE eNewsletter for updates.

Marnie

About Marnie Craycroft

Marnie hails from Maine where she spent summers buried in sand and winters buried in snow. She is the daughter of a nearly four decade veteran of the public school systems. Teaching has always been a part of her life. She founded Carrots Are Orange in 2010.

Carrots Are Orange is a Montessori learning and living website for parents and teachers.

Marnie graduated from Wesleyan University in 1999 with a BA in Economics. She spent nearly a decade working in investment management. In 2006, she earned her MA in business from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business.

Marnie moved to the west coast in 1999 and currently lives in Boulder with her husband and three sons. She is Montessori trained. Her work has been featured on Apartment Therapy, Buzzfeed, PBS Kids, BabyCenter, the Melissa & Doug blog, Huffington Post, and WhattoExpect.com. Besides writing, passions include running (usually after her three sons), photography, and outdoor adventures.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.