Can anybody out there tell me what this prickly looking tool is used for? And ,please, don't say kligon sex toy. I found it with a bunch of sewing supplies and all I can guess is that maybe it's used in pressing velvet without crushing the nap. It's not for needle felting, there aren't any barbs on the wires. I can't resist old craft and sewing tools. Palm loom, weaveit, daisy loom, you name it, I've got it.
On to the second mystery. Can you guess what I used to make this pendant? Except for a little polymer clay, it's all repurposed stuff. Stop reading for a sec if you want to guess because I'm going to give the answer. OK? The metal ring and tab is from an old zipper pull. I put a pad of aqua colored polymer clay in the center, coated it with translucent liquid clay and pressed bits of broken windshield glass into it. The zipper pull was from last week's tag sale bag of zippers. I guess you could say that I got the glass "delivered" to my doorstep. We live on a busy street and before they added a stop light, we had three different cars crash through our yard. The glass came from the one that left tire marks on the front door,went on to barely miss a huge pine tree, ending up on it's roof in the vacant lot next door. DUI? You bet. The driver and passenger took off in a friend's car before the cops arrived. Every time there has been an accident out here some mind altering substance was involved. Thankfully, the stoplight has worked. Jeeze, I really didn't intend for this post to be taken over by a DUI rant. Deep cleansing breath. Back to repurposing. I've been reusing found materials since I was a kid. We didn't just run to Michaels for stuff and the craft kits made for kids tended to be garbage anyway. Except for sharp blades, I always let my son use my art and craft supplies. It isn't fair to hand a kid a cheezy craft kit. They only get frustrated when they can't make it work. Give them your empty boxes and some real supplies and they'll astound you with their original projects.
Who can resist the luxurious color and pattern of silk neckties? Not me. A while back I started making some scarves out of them and now they have worked their way into my hats. The silk can be very slippery to cut and sew accurately so I had to come up with some tricks to tame it. Light weight iron on interfacing is a big help when you need to maintain a crisp shape. Many projects use the neckties intact but if you take them apart you'll have lots more to work with. Think of them as a fabric source. Because they are cut on the bias, neckties make great bias tape for edging things. The down side is that the grain is usually distorted from the weight of the wider ends. It's sneaky - you can draw a circle on the fabric and it will be a circle. As soon as it's cut out it turns into an oval. The worst offenders are the narrower sections in the center of the tie. The ends are much less apt to distort. Oh, and save the long silk thread that was hand sewn up the back - it usually pulls out in one piece and is great for hand sewing. I normally don't bother with polyester ties, especially the printed designs. They melt when ironed, snag easily leaving a white line through the pattern and are a general bother to sew. But if you find a woven polyester or acetate tie in a great pattern, it can be worth trying. Just be very cautious when ironing. That crazy green zig zag tie was worth the extra trouble and it worked into a cool hat.
I also finally bit the bullet and am lining all my new hats so anyone can wear them. It makes for a better product and I just wasn't getting around to trying anything with non wool sweaters. Still, there are so many pretty ramie/cotton sweaters in the thrift shops that I may end up using them, just not for hats. The cut edges would need to be well finished.
