As I was wandering outside the dead stalks of last season’s Gregg’s Mistflower caught my eye. I love that the plant took over our front flower bed, and the local insects love the flowers that bloom from Spring to Fall. I started clearing the dried stems in preparation for Spring, and wondered if it would make good weaving material.
Photo description: dried Gregg’s Mistflower stems, stripped of leaves
I did an initial test by wrapping some stems in a wet towel. I left them overnight and in the morning tested pliability. They seemed flexible. The next step will be to harvest more and attempt some weaving.
It would be fantastic if my new favorite plant could also be a craft material.
I strapped the trail cam to a tree at about calf height rather than a stand, which made for some interesting extreme closeups.
Photo description: deer eye extreme closeup in night vision Photo description: up close view through a squirrel tailPhoto description: fuzzy extreme closeup of a black cat’s yellow eye
For our monthly craft day, my neighbor and I reupholstered two dining room chairs.
Photo description: before picture of a claw foot chair with worn velvet seat cushion
The seat was only laid into the chair frame, so lifting it out was easy, then we removed the staples with flathead screwdrivers and serrated needle nose pliers.
Photo description: underside of the chair pad showing the jute webbing used as support
There were so many staples. The velvet had a set of staples, then there were three layers of thick cotton surrounding cotton filler and each layer had a host of staples.
Photo description: cotton cloth layer with more staplesPhoto description: padding made from raw cotton, which condensed and was no longer comfortable to sit onPhoto description: seat frame with jute webbing
When we got down to just the frame, it was obvious that the seat had been reupholstered many times. The jute webbing was in good condition, so we left it in place. To rebuild the seat, we found a 3” dense foam chair cushion, some upholstery quality heavy cotton, and some beautiful red velvet. The cushion was the same depth and width as the chair seat, it just needed some trimming with an electric knife to match the profile. We secured the pad to the frame with the heavy cotton cloth and heavy duty staples.
Photo description: heavy cotton fabric securing the foam pad to the seat frame
Because we used a foam block, we didn’t need as many layers of cotton as was previously installed. The cotton layer did help to do the initial shaping of the pad and make applying the velvet easier.
Photo description: underside of seat frame with velvet secured with staples
We did have to switch to longer staples, particularly in the corners, with the velvet. It was good that I brought along a selection.
Photo description: after picture of the reupholstered seat of a claw foot chair
We were able to refinish both chairs, including shopping for fabric, in about three hours. Chair seat reupholstery is a very doable project with a good heavy staple gun, selection of staples, and a pair of pliers.
Thor the gray tabby cat is thoroughly confused by the antics of Sophie the dilute calico cat. Thor is usually the one in the box taking swipes at passerby. He isn’t quite sure what to do about this development. Missy the small black dog is on hand to break up any fights.
Photo description: calico cat popping out of a fabric covered box with a gray tabby looking at the camera and the tail of a black dog headed off screen
My youngest needed Valentine cards for school, but didn’t want store bought. I like toy-type cards, and if I can sneak some science in all the better. This line of pursuit led us to create a Thaumatrope, which is a spinning toy invented in the 1800s with two different pictures on each side of a disc. When the disc is spun, the pictures appear to combine. The original thaumatropes used string to suspend the circle, but a similar action can also be achieved with a stick mounted disc, and rolling a stick between two palms is easier than twisting string. My youngest chose the elements to go on the card, and I drew them up in Adobe Illustrator. Pro tip for getting colors right from screen to print: don’t go by screen color. If you want a bright yellow, go into the color picker and make sure that your CMYK color is all Y, with no cyan or magenta. High contrast images work better for this visual trick as well. I printed the images on card stock, and used my laser cutter to cut the circles (so much more precise than my old electric cutter). I used hot glue to secure the paper stick (I used a 6” stick marketed for cake pops), and keep the front and back together.
Photo description: finished stick-style thaumatropes in the background, glue gun to the left and the front and back of the disc in the foreground
I like that when the disc spins, the bee and sun are smiling at each other. It came out cute. What wasn’t cute was making 35 of them. Phew.
Critters and Craft 