It can be difficult to get much cheaper on official Waldorf art supplies - just because so many are imported from Europe. We can't all afford the natural, fabulous colors and frangrances all of the time. I recently put together some ideas for making art supplies - and really what you need do fully "do" Waldorf in the early grades - with ideas on economizing, while still using natural products:
And then the Arts page has multiple ideas on why/how for each of the crafts.
I really use the vendor above for most supplies, or Mercurius USA if you can purchase (alone or with a group) at least $150 at a time. There are many other great businesses - you might check Waldorf World for listings. Sometimes, if you can find the vendor with the right mix of products, it can be worth it to get everything in one place and save on shipping. Or contact your nearest Waldorf school and see if it might be more economical to buy supplies from their school shop.
) but I can say they are well worth the extra expense. My daughter is twelve and we still have the original box of stockmar crayons I ordered from Nova when she was two! Obviously we have had other boxes and other supplies! But they have held up- I can't trace the origins of any Crayola in my house, because they break and you throw them away. I have bags of old Stockmar block and stick crayons I took home as 'discards' from the school I worked at, and they clean up well (a little olive oil on an old washcloth works great and the kids love to clean crayons) and last forever. And the really do make a difference on the paper, you'll see (if you haven't already).
I also have the same bottles of Stockmar watercolors I bought at Rudolf Steiner college five years ago. A little goes a long way. The only one you need to replace regularly is the blue, which goes bad after too long and has a *horrific* odor.
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