64 Arts

the 64 Arts | #35 Woodworking

64 Arts

Oooh, power tools!

The next art, in case I didn’t make that clear already, is

35 Woodwork

Using a lathe and other tools.

See? Just like I said: power tools. We don’t own a lathe, but Todd does have a good selection of other tools to choose from.

Only I get a little antsy around power tools.

I developed a phobia of large blades–both still and electric–after a small blade incident* made it necessary to get four stitches in my left index finger. Sounds like a simple accident, right? But somewhere between doing the stupid thing to cause the accident/incident (because it was totally my own fault), driving myself to the emergency room just shy of being in shock, waiting 6 hours (from 10pm to 4am) before getting into the doctor, and the meltdown I had when they gave me the shot of lidocaine before the stitches I was scarred, way more than skin-deep.

Todd mows the lawn and I flinch every time the mower hits a stick or rock and changes rhythm. If he’s in the garage cutting something (often a project I’ve cooked up for us, as I’ll be showing you in future posts), it takes a LOT of deep breaths not to completely panic over the worst-case scenarios flashing through my head. I haven’t even touched my beloved Dremel in years. Even the huge cutters at work–which require each hand on a safety button, well away from the blades, before the foot-pedal to start the cutting action can be engaged–give me the willies!

But Todd loves his power tools and enjoys almost any reason to use them or, you know, buy more. And he’s always careful, I just can’t help but worry. As scared as they make me, I’m certainly not going to stop him!

(Typing all of that out makes me think of Aunt Josephine from Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, which just makes me feel all the more silly, but there you go.)

So this art, while I’m going to enjoy showing you a couple of the projects Todd & I have already done together, will be a challenge on a couple of levels. First, to find a fresh project I’d like to do for the blog and, second, to tamp down my fears enough to actually do it!

Wish me luck!

*Fallout notwithstanding, I managed to make light of the situation as best I could in my comic strip. Click through that link and you’ll see my take on the experience.

The finished pine needle bowl

Finally, A Wooden Basket!

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Well, mostly.

I still haven’t gotten my hands on actual basket-weaving reeds, canes, etc. BUT! While I was searching for inspiration and instruction, I came upon this tutorial for a nifty pine needle basket, and that’s one supply I’ve got plenty of.

Pine Needle Basket/Bowl with Blue Ribbon

We have a pine tree next to our driveway, on my side of the driveway, and one time when I went to get my oil changed the dude who popped the hood ended up having to carve away 3 months of pine needles (okay, okay, more like 5) that had scooted under the windshield-edge of the hood. Oops!

No, I didn’t save those pine needles, but I did take a trip out into the yard before Todd got out the lawnmower and collected a bag of the longer pine needle boughs for this very purpose.

I’ll leave it to the pro to explain all the fiddly details of the process (seriously, her pictures are fabulous, why reinvent the wheel?) and please note that this is intended to be a kid’s craft project, so there’s no excuse for you not trying it, too 😉 Here’s my abbreviated version.

First you have to soak the needles, because by the time they’ve  fallen down to earth they’ve gotten pretty brittle, then lay them out to dry a little, but not so much they become brittle and you have to start all over again.

Pine needles drying

I pressed a bit of paper toweling over the tops to speed up the process a smidgen.

Starting off the bottom center is probably the fiddliest part, but once you get the wrapping started it’s not so bad. I used 5 pine needle bundles (opting to leave the needle caps on) at a time and it was a very workable amount.

Wrapping the center section of pine needles, to start our basket

Once you get your stitching started, the center coils go pretty fast. The bunches of needles are super-easy to sew through and sooner than you expect you’ll have your base well underway

The woven base of the pine needle basket

I couldn’t find my raffia–I KNOW I have some somewhere–so I just pulled out a partial spool of thin ribbon to use. It worked fine and the contrast is actually nice. (Of course, you can also see how uneven my stitches were as I went along, but, hey, that’s transparency in this day and age, right?)

To start building up instead of out, start angling your pine needle bunches more on top of the previous row, rather than out to the side. If you want straight sides, place the needles on top of each other, but if you want a gently sloping side, go for more of a diagonal placement.

Forming the sides of a pine needle basket or bowl

You can start to draw the needle bands in tighter (diagonally to the inside edge) to create a narrow neck or a lip for keeping small bits in. I, however, ran out of ribbon so decided to leave mine as simply a saucer.

The finished pine needle bowl

A little bowl like this took maybe an hour, hour and a half tops, to construct (I was catching up on some DVR dramas and it was definitely less that 2 shows) and could work as a small change valet, or even a place to set your rings next to the sink. And (because I’ve got weddings on the brain–I bought my dress last week!), this little test basket would also be perfect as a ring-warming dish if a bride and groom were using that as part of their ceremony–it would be so easy to use ribbons to match the color scheme!

Okay, I have one more basket weaving project up my sleeve, if I can get the necessary supplies by this weekend. If not, we’ll come back to at some point and move on to our next art.

Anyone going to give pine needle baskets a go? I’d love to see your pictures if you do!

Halfway woven mini-egg basket

Another Partial-Paper Basket

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I swear, one of these days I’ll graduate to weaving with actual wood, but for now I’ll stick to my preferred mediums of paper and fabric. At least this project bears a closer resemblance to the spirit of the art we’re working on.

My mini-Egg Basket of Paper Twist and Ribbon

I used the free instructions from The Basket Weavers Catalog for their Small “Egg” Basket, making my basket about half the size of the example, so mine’s a mini basket.

For the hoops I used hunter green paper twist, as it, straight out of the package, secured with a bit of Tacky Glue at the ends.

Hoop and ribs of a mini-egg basket, made of paper-twist

For the lashing or “God’s Eye” I used the same paper twist, but untwisted it and cut the crinkled paper into quarters, lengthwise. First I tried it with ribbon but it didn’t have enough oomph–I suppose I could have used a wider ribbon, but the sturdiness of the paper twist was really what was called for. Retwisting the paper twist strips I’d cut down made the perfect width for the ribs, also glued-in behind the God’s Eye.

And can I just take a moment to tell you how much nostalgia hit me making the God’s Eyes? Did anyone else have boatloads of these around their room after learning them at camp or some after-school program? Obviously I did, though I’m glad to know there was a semi-useful skill learned by it, not just keeping hands busy.

Halfway woven mini-egg basket

Finally, instead of round reed for the actually weaving, I used 2 shades of green skinny ribbon and a tapestry needle. I found the needle made the ribbon-weaving easier, especially when it was time to tuck the ends into the previous rows to finish each ribbon.

The one big lesson I took away from the little project is that you start at each end and work your way into meeting in the center. Without the directions, had I been hacking through it myself, I probably would have worked from one end to the other and wondered how in the hell to get the end looking nice and neat.

See, sometimes it pays to read the instructions.

Mini-Egg Basket filled with Mini-Food

And my little mini-basket is just the perfect size for these cute little food erasers I picked up at our local toy store and soda fountain, Lofty Pursuits.

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Elsewhere

Have I mentioned Gauche Alchemy enough for you? Well, next week I’ll be sharing the details on a cool stamp and paint project I did as part of our swap with Viva Las VegaStamps. If you’re at ALL into cool stamps or are looking to get some Gauche Goodies at a discount, check out both blogs for their respective discount codes.

4 steps to a pretty paper basket

A Tisket, A Tasket, I Made a Paper Basket

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And you can whip one up, too, if you’re so inclined.

I’ve been looking forward to this next art for some time now, though this isn’t the project I was planning to kick it off with.

34 Plaiting cane baskets, etc.

Making solid seats with dry canes.

Small basket made out of magazine covers and pages.

I’m not quite up to cane seats (though I do have an old chair on the garage that could use a new seat), but I do remember doing some basic basket-weaving in elementary school. I thought I’d seen supplies at my local Hobby Lobby but apparently I hallucinated that (or, you know, in a year the inventory has changed, but that couldn’t be it, right?) so it was on to Plan B.

Besides, cane is wood(ish) and paper used to be wood.

All justification aside, if your weaving skills are a little rusty, or you’ve got little ones around in need of a rainy-day projects, this might just be the ticket. And if you’re anything like me, you’ve got plenty of materials around.

My magazine stash, or at least part of it

This totally makes me look like a hoarder, doesn't it?

My magazine-saving obsession notwithstanding, I was happy to find the instructions from the Family Fun site to follow. Of course, I did things a bit different: I overlapped my magazine strips to make a sturdier basket and used 2 of the leftover strips as crossed handles, secured by little brads.

4 steps to a pretty paper basket

Todd had the awesome idea to use some of the wallpaper sample books I’ve got saved up in The Abyss, but they’re, ah, not exactly as easy to get to. In fact, I think the stacks of magazines are blocking the sample books.

A basket like this (mine is about 3 inches square, not counting the handles) would be perfect for delivering a small stuffed toy to a sick friend, as a cute place-setting for a summer garden party, or even just to organize light-weight craft supplies.

Don’t Put Down the Bartlett’s Just Yet!

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And I’m not talking about pears, either.

Two go-to references for me in high school were Roget’s Thesaurus and Bartlett’s Quotations. Add in a copy of Webster’s for the obligatory “The dictionary defines accomplishment as…” essay beginning and you’d have the trifecta of ways to b.s. a paper.

Tell me, have you ever thought of Bartlett or Roget since then? (College excluded.)

But there’s more to quotations that just pithy essay fodder (no, really), which is why we’ve got one more quotation art to handle before moving on:

33 Quoting the classics in answering questions.

Probably the easiest example I can give of this is to paraphrase the infamous star-crossed love story…

Honey, you’ve got to listen to reason, you can’t be into him, he’s a Montague!

What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

She could have just said (to herself, because this was all monologue) I don’t care what his name is or he’s not just his daddy’s name or even pfft, we’ll just change his name later, no biggie–you get the point.

Point is, by saying it in a deep and meaningful way–and preferably with deep, meaningful words that someone else immortalized, thus giving them more weight and credibility–you sound, well, deep and meaningful. And maybe a little pretentious, if used too often, but still deep and meaningful for the time being.

Which brings me back to Bartlett’s Quotations. Did you know the entire thing is available online, along with scads of other awesome references all at Bartleby.com? (This is not an advertisement, this is just me passing along a helpful tip.)

Now, I hear you thinking (yes, really) what good are quotes to me: I’m all done with writing essays and my kids think I’m still pretty much a genius so, you know, why bother?

Aside from sounding spiffy when you’re talking with your grown-up friends, here’s a short list and ways quotes can come in handy on the day-to-day:

  • blog post prompts
  • journaling prompts
  • scrapbook elements
  • art prompts
  • pithy sayings to put on your walls
  • your eventual Jeopardy! tryouts
  • things to put on the inside or outside of handmade cards
  • when nothing else you’ve got in your head sounds right

But the most important reason to keep a quotable reference handy is that quotes, by their very nature of being known and often-used, convey understanding between you and someone else. Even if all you’re quoting is Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, you’re still finding a common ground with other’s who know where you’re coming from, based on a shared bit of history.