These were fairly easy to make, even simpler than the 100 blocks. They did require taping the square with painter’s tape to obtain the triangle edge. Another trick that became apparent was that I accomplished a cleaner edge if I held the block with the triangle point down for the triangle I was painting an did two light coats instead of one heavy coat of watercolor. Otherwise, the paint seeped under the tape leaving me with a less-than-crisp edge than I wanted.

It was also helpful for the triangle to be on the grain side. When you look at the wooden block, four sides run with the grain, and two sides are against the grain. These two sides soak up a lot more of the watercolor paint. With the triangles on two of the grain sides, it was easier to get that crisp edge. You could easily do these in two contrasting colors – black and white, or red and green, etc. – but you know I needed mine in a rainbow of colors. I chose 10 colors from our Stockmar Waldorf watercolors. You can see more about our watercolors in the blog: A Homeschooler’s Review of the Book Painting and Drawing in Waldorf Schools. I painted 10 of each block, but I highly recommend 12 of each color. Several patterns take roughly 12 blocks of color (using 16 blocks total) that would have been nice to have of all the same hue.