Burlap baskets

 Hello dear readers

Although I'm teaching how to make miniatures, I still don't have enough pupils to justify spending funds on craft materials.  I spent a lot of time trying to come up with ideas on how to use available cheap stuff for crafting and recycling. 

Here is what we managed to create last week, at no cost, except for the white plastic glue that I supplied from my own stock. The burlap was a left-over scrap, also from my stock.

I forgot to take photos of the way the baskets were made. You can figure it out for yourselves, or if anyone is interested, I'll make a step-by-step tutorial.  All the baskets in the photo are made out of glue stiffened burlap. We pulled out lengths of threads before stiffening the burlap to make the handles and for trimming the ends.  The knitting needles are tiny colored foam balls pierced into straight sewing pins.

Remember the poster from my previous post here? There was enough card paper left to make 10 more pitchers.

I wish all my followers and readers a happy, enjoyable weekend with blessings.

A very rewarding cause

 Hello dear readers,

Working with old folks is very rewarding.  I now have four ladies who very enthusiastically follow my tutorials and together we managed to create these miniatures within a few meetings.

All the flowers were made by the a/m ladies. I showed them how to stiffen the green crochet thread with glue, cut it into stem lengths and, then glue on the sepals and the flower petals.  (see my tutorial here).  All the pitchers were made by me recycling advertising posters.

The stand was also made by me.  I hope it will attract some of the gentlemen to make the next ones. So far, I supplied all the materials, from my own hoarded piles. An opportunity to get rid of a little trash for a good cause. Three pairs of chopsticks, 6 lollipop sticks.  

Our next project is going to be a knitting basket.  I made this one as a sample. 

June became a difficult month for me.  On the 26th of June 2020, I lost my beloved husband,  The 4th of June is my birthday.  I am not ready yet to celebrate my birthdays without my partner, especially this month that I became 90. Life goes on, I don't feel my age and I can only count my blessings, still on my feet, able to do some volunteer work, surrounded by a loving family and friends. I have a great supply of books to read and miniatures keep me busy and interested.  I don't drive a car anymore,  twice a week I go to a gym, exercising to keep fit. And yes, although I always found it hard, I still cut and saw wood for my crafts. 

I wish you all, my readers and friends, a lovely Sunday with blessings.

sunday 

Working with elderly people

Hello dear readers,

Sorry for having neglected my blog and for not visiting many of your blogs for a while.

Shortly after the corona restrictions were lifted, another trouble landed on us here in Israel.  Missiles were fired from Gaza in all directions, regardless of children and elderly people. Alarm sirens sounded at all hours of the day and night. It was necessary to go down to the shelter or stay in a protected space within the building. There are no protected spaces in our building except for an underground shelter. Since the elevator must not be used during an alarm, and of course, going down from the top floors down to the shelter in 3 minutes with babies and small children on our hands is an equally dangerous operation, most of the tenants, including myself, preferred to stay in the apartments and hope we would get out of it safely.

I started working with people at the daycare for the elderly center in May.  There was very little interest at the beginning. I brought along some of my miniature items that I found easy to create, but they couldn't believe it possible for them to learn.  So I took out some pipe-cleaners and began to make tiny puppies and kittens.  This was a huge success.  Now even the gentlemen want to make them.

It took a few weeks and here I can show what we already finished.

The pitcher is recycled from a poster advertising apartments sale which I found hanging on my door. These posters are ideal for pitchers since they are already colored and shiny. 

After noting that the flowers were really not difficult to make and learning to use paper punches and how to shape and cup the petals they became very enthusiastic and we were able to fill recycled poster pitchers with dozens of flowers. I was too busy to take photos. I'll do it next time I'm at the center.

A very warm welcome to the new followers of my blog. Thank you for your interest.

I wish you, all my dear readers, a very nice and safe weekend with blessings.