Tutorial: Viking Wire Weaving I hang around bad influences. My friends get me to try all sorts of stuff that I wouldn't even think of on my own. But you know, it is kind of fun! In the most recent case, a dear friend of mine has been teaching Viking wire weaving anyone who will sit still long enough to look at what she is doing. Viking or Norse wire weaving (also called trichinopoly), as suggested by the name, dates back to the Viking era. ( Through my friend, I ordered directions and a small kit from Tom Kassens, and I was off and running. To learn the technique, I made a practice bracelet out of some scrap copper wire I had lying around. Here's what I did: Materials:craft wire in two sizesa wooden dowel (or fingers, or allen wrench)a draw plate (make one by drilling different sized holes in a board)wire cutterspliersawlhammer For this necklace, I made a 5 loop chain. Twist the ends of the loops together. And here you go!
Lunchbag Books Look out, I'm about to whip out the nasty crafty on you in a way I want you all to forget about as soon as you've read this and I've posted something else. It will be our little secret. For some of you this idea may come a little too late - your kids may already be shirtless and barefoot and soaking up the sun in the name of summertime. But for a lot of us here in California, we're still in the thick of school drop-offs and pick-ups, end-of-the-year plays and award assemblies and OH SHIT did I get the teacher an end-of-the-year gift?! realizations. That's where I come in. Wink. Brown paper lunchbag books (Feel free to add your own ideas & change it up as you wish or based on your child's age and capability to contribute to the project) Some tools/supplies you should consider buying: These tools come in a set and are highly recommended. Any one of these tapes/glues will work although if you want my opinion on which works best, I'd go with the one on the right - Dotto in "permanent." Ready?
Random Weave Basket Materials and Tools: hand-held garden pruning clippersneedle nose pliersgloveskudzu and wisteria vines, used for weavinggrape vines to build frames Steps: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Project designed by Mark Barnes. Living Primitively The Handy Hausfrau: Portable Spice Kit for Camping or Travel Today's DIY project at The Handy Hausfrau is a portable spice "rack." We have a second home (a ski condo in the mountains) and I am constantly filling up Ziplock bags with various spices for cooking. Why don't I just leave the spices up there? you ask. We rent the condo out and on more than one occasion, I've searched for my crushed red pepper, only to find that a renter used the last of it on his pepperoni pizza slice. It's only 6 inches x 1.5 inches and it easily fits in any tote bag or suitcase that I'm lugging back and forth. *I would check with the airlines to see if you can carry on spices. To create this project, head to your local Walgreens, CVS or other drug store. Notice the little key in the upper right corner of the package? When you open it up, you'll notice that each day's lid also has raised dots on the corner - braille to indicate the day for the visually impaired. Find your strongest pair of nail clippers and get to work clipping those dots off. Now comes the fun part.
How to tie a 5 Strand Turk's Head Knot How to tie a 5 Strand Turk's Head Knot Below is a picture of the finished knot. It's about 1" in diameter and has a marble inside. Start with about 8 feet of 1/8" nylon line. Loop around fingers. (I usually use only two fingers but am using three here for clarity.) First loop viewed from back of hand. This pass goes over the starting line. Line now goes parallel to first pass. Coming up from the bottom, go over line as shown. Line goes under and then over this pass. Leave it a little loose as you'll need room later on. The working end comes from the far left now and then goes under and then over, passing to far right at the top. Making sure line is looped to the far right still, pass it over, under and over again as shown, and end at the far left side. Do not attempt to take up any slack yet. Starting from the far left, pass line over, under and over as shown, again ending up on far right of existing loops. Pass line under and over as shown. Again pass line under and over as shown. The finished product.
Kodachrome Curtains So, it's been a while since I've made anything Craftster-worthy, but my husband and I busted out the Dremel tool a few days ago and we made this: It's a pair of curtains made out of old Kodachrome slides! I'm really interested in photography, and will buy old cameras in antique and thrift stores in order to develop film that's inside of it. From time to time, I'll find collections of old slides and will buy those, too. Last fall, driving back from vacation, we stopped at an antique store outside of Kansas City and I found a box of a ton of old slides, mostly Kodachrome, from the 50s and 60s. I hate the idea that these pictures would just be resigned to the garbage or something, and wanted to display them (besides just scanning them in and putting them on Flickr - here's a link to my old found negative/slide collection, though, if you want to check that out: ). Then I connected them all together with chainmail rings.
YouTube - Basket Weaving Video #4 Twining--Twining a Keeper Row