My front door grape vine experiment with hot glued glass pebbles and thin draping strands of hot glue caught a spider.
Photo description: Spotted Orb Weaver spider caught on strands of hot glue
I saw the spider as I was leaving the house and thought it odd that it was sitting there exposed. I pulled on some of the glue threads and it moved, so I gently pulled the threads away. It turns out the spider was tangled in the thin strands of plastic. When I pulled away enough of the elastic string, the spider mobilized and moved to a more protected area. I finished taking all the hot glue strands off the sculpture. I had no idea they were capable of entrapment.
Today I present some photos of plants around the house, inside and outside, and the reason they are unusual enough to warrant a picture.
Photo description: the hibiscus managed a few blooms this year, despite being choked out by the Gregg’s Mistflower. The Mistflower did not stay under 12 inches, but got leggy and tall because there isn’t quite enough light in the front bed. Mistflower does not respond well to being trimmed. The plan is to take out the whole bed and put it in the meadow, where there is more sunlight. Being a native plant we hope the Mistflower will do better there. For the hibiscus, maybe I can find it a new home.Photo description: inside the house we have a jewel orchid living almost its best life. This is a closeup of a new leaf opening up in a spiral. I have the orchid in a bed of live moss with a tall clear cover to keep in the moisture. I don’t have to water it very often as the moss releases and reabsorbs the moisture in the closed environment. I don’t know why the leaves slightly curl the other way once fully open.Photo description: this is a succulent in my terrarium and it seems to have produced flower-like leaves. The leaves on the left are white tinged with pink edges, rather than the striped green. I’m not sure if this is normal, or a sign of poor conditions, but they are pretty.
I needed a stand for poster boards with lyrics printed for my chorus. We are changing a few lyrics of standard songs for a Halloween show, and we don’t need to commit them to memory. I love making frames from PVC pipe because they are light, easy to assemble and disassemble, and relatively inexpensive. I was out of PVC elbows at home, but I did have a ladder ball game, full of elbows, connectors, and tubes.
Photo description: stand made from plastic tubes from a ladder ball game
The stand has two positions, a vertical display, or turned 90 degrees, a slanted surface. It is just smaller than the poster board, so the edges of the signs are supported. To hang the poster board, I punched two holes at the top and used book rings to connect several sheets. One sheet always has to be on the back as counterweight, then the assembly hangs over the top bar of the stand.
In April I gathered some iris leaves and let them dry inside on a drying rack.
Photo description: freshly picked iris leaves on a mesh drying rack Photo description: same iris leaves after five monthsPhoto description: dried iris leaves gathered from outside in September
I was surprised at the color difference between iris leaves dried inside, and those left to dry outside. The inside leaves are so much darker, but the color is more uniform. The outside dried leaves are more golden, but with streaks of black. What isn’t surprising is the grasshopper bites on the leaves left outside on the plant. There isn’t much grasshopper activity in April, but as the summer rolls through, and most of the other greenery turns brown, the grasshoppers go after the iris.
The next step is to see if there are any differences in how the leaves weave up.
I started a twined loop-and-twist bag from a flax kit from Sally Pointer, historical educator. With the flax strick from the kit, I drew the fibers from the middle, which created horrible tangles of tow flax at the ends. (Tow flax is shorter lengths of flax, line flax can have strands over three feet.) When I ran out of long line flax, I attempted to continue with combed tow flax, which is doable, but I really like twining with long line flax, so I ordered another strick from a local company. I was smarter with this bundle of flax fibers, and actually read the flax passages in “the Practical Spinner’s Guide” book series. I separated out a section of the new flax, and put the rest aside.
Photo description: flax strick (top), twined loop-and-twist bag in progress (middle), smaller section of long line flax untwisted (bottom)
There are several methods of dressing flax to reduce tangles when spinning or twining, I chose to tie a ribbon around and drape the section over my shoulder. I sit on a high backed chair when I twine, so I can keep tension on the fibers by leaning back.
Photo description: section of flax tied with a ribbon to keep the fibers neater
I’d like the bag to be big enough to hold a pound of wool or so. The expansion capabilities of the loop-and-twist bag are quite extraordinary.
Critters and Craft 