DAS clay

 

My elasmosaurus

  

Various creations

  

Troy Dale (7)

  

 Savannah Dale (18)

  Georgie MacDonald (7)

 

 

Even little kids can paint a shape from a mold (this is from a dragonfly cookie mould that Luke (5) pushed the clay into himself, and later painted by himself).

 

Phoebe Gibbins (5)

Terracotta coloured air drying clay.  We really enjoyed working with it - had a really good session.

It tends to dry out quickly when working with it – so have a bowl of water handy. (And toothpicks - and beads for eyes.) Very fragile until totally dry. Other than that, a very low-fuss clay for working with kids (and working with yourself.)

Paint with a high quality white primer first if you want your colours on the surface to be bright (I always steal a teaspoon of my husband’s expensive house renovation stuff.)

I also like how warm the terracotta clay looks, unpainted.  It reminds me of Etruscan art - they often used brown clay - full of warmth and life - compared to other cultures.  Even their art for burial focusses on life, not death. 

How to kettle dye wool (yarn) - in Utah with my sister Wendy

When I visited my family, some who now live in the US, I dyed wool with my sister Wendy (who I believe will one day be famous, she's so creative). She showed me how to kettle dye wool with "acid dyes". I am very excited about it.

You can save money by buying undyed wool, then artistically dye it yourself.

Above - one kilo of undyed wool (Peruvian Highland Wool, Worsted Weight, "Bare" by Knitpicks).

You can do this either on the stove, or using an electric kettle. In the States, we used Pro Washfast Acid Dyes. In NZ, Wendy suggested Ashford dyes.



Electric kettle. (I think that would be better than on a stovetop anyways - safer.)



Wendy suggested 4 colours. I wanted to choose both the blues and greens of the ocean, and also the deeper darker greens of the NZ bush (forest). This is for a jumper (sweater) for my husband. Forest Green, Avocado, Moss, Turquoise.



First you soak the yarn in warm water with 1/2 cup of citric acid (white powdery stuff). The citric acid makes the dye take faster, a "faster strike".




Dissolve each colour of dye in a separate cup. (About 1/2 cup water and 2 teaspoons dye).




Sometimes the dye (especially turquoise) can be hard to dissolve. Try to dissolve the gummy stuff as best you can - can take a lump out to keep soaking and add later.




Next, Wendy (wearing gloves or else you'll get very colourful hands) took the wet noodley yarn out and placed it all in the heated kettle (with some water in first so the wool doesn't get burnt). She had her kettle heated up to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C).




Arranging the hanks (skeins) like this...





Then she just started pouring dye all over it!




Artistically...




I call it..."where the forest meets the sea..." or something like that. Seamoss forest? Anyways it's both forest and ocean colours together. THEN wait 10 minutes.




After the 10 minutes, she added more water, especially between the wool and the sides to prevent burning, and let it cook for one more hour.




At which point Wendy and I found something industrious to do. This is my sister Wendy, spinning wool.


1 hour later. Ok. Let's see what it looks like...




Lookin' good!




After the dyeing, the remaining water will be quite clear if the dye has been "exhausted". If not, Wendy always throws some extra wool in there to soak up the dye. This is unspun wool. She saves an assortment of wool dyed in this way, until she has enough to do something with.





Then wash the wool, adding 1/2 cup of vinegar, and at this point you can add a few drops of essential oils to help it resist bugs - we used lemon and eucalyptus, but I imagine tea tree oil would be really good too.




Not bad!

Now I just have to figure out how to knit a jumper (that's "sweater" to you, North Americans).

First sewing practice doll - buy a premade doll form to decorate and sew a dress

My mother made me the doll on the right, "Raggedy Ann". She had taught me to sew when I was little by helping me sew a simple doll's dress for my doll. They were selling doll forms at a local craft depot, and I got one for Troy - thinking of that. This is "Raggedy Mary".

Troy designed the doll first, which was sweet. She drew the face on with pencil, and then sewed the nose and mouth herself. I did the eyes and hair. She also sewed a few seams on the dress and apron, and sewed a button on the dress. I really had to hold myself back and let her do the parts she did do, thinking - the whole point of this is for Troy to learn. It can be difficult when one wants to make something perfect yourself - but then what is the point? Passing on skills is far more important. So with great difficulty I held myself back....

And it was great.

Troy threading a needle - children are better than adults at this anyways!

Note: For the dress and apron, I looked at a doll dress pattern I had and replicated the steps, but tailored for this doll. (I would get a doll pattern of some kind with a few clothing options to choose from - aprons, pants, dresses for example.) I didn't have elastic in the house which turned out to be great because I used thin hair elastics and they were perfect!

How to make a rainbow dress (dyeing calico)

I had a vision of a rainbow dress for an upcoming work party. I looked around a bit, but didn't find anything that suited my vision. Then I thought I would go find a beautiful rainbow print from Spotlight and make a simple dress out of it.

A day prior to the function (of course), I went to Spotlight. I searched high and low but there was nothing like I had imagined. I knew that I didn't have the extra money for buying a dress at the shops. After awhile at the store I got the idea of making the dress in plain calico (100% undyed cotton), and then dying it myself. I chose the primary colours (red, yellow, blue) of Dylon dye (the hand-dying variety, there is also one you can do in a washing machine), and envisioned dipping a side of the dress in at a time. The dyes would fade upwards and blend into each other to create other secondary colours, green and orange and purple. I didn't buy a pattern because it was out of my budget (some were $20-30).

The 3 dyes, a dress zipper, and 1.5m of calico fabric came to $31 NZ.

It took me all night to make the dress from a pattern I had that was far too small that I visually sized up looking at a dress I had that fit me - so made my own pattern by following the structure of one, and the look of an actual dress I had. I had to play with it, tailoring it, but eventually made one that was good enough. I was very out of practice! So this was the weak part of my project - and can only improve the next time I do it (I think I will then just use a pattern which fits me).

But the dyeing went great. See the photo below. I dyed in our basement garage, which is perfect for dyeing - just concrete and metal down there. I repurposed a container for the dyeing that I usually used for recycling. Then I had to find a way to the dress dipped for at least 45 min (one side at a time), so I used laundry clips and string, and tied them up to a pole at the right lengths so the dress was suspended evenly in the mixture.


What I did:
First I had washed the dress in the washing machine on hot - so it shrunk as much as possible and wouldn't shrink any more later (my mom's tip). After it was dry, it was wrinkly so I ironed the fabric before (and as a tool during) making the dress.

After the dress was made, I got the dress wet and wrung it out. After dipping the side of the dress in the first colour, I rinsed the dress out in cold water, then warm. Then another side of the damp dress got suspended in the next colour. I was even able to make the fade (which naturally happened anyways) more extended by raising the container up higher for a few moments (so the dress was submerged for a short time deeper in the dye) so the colours blended more.



Important: Dyeing is very fun and easy - IF you are dyeing a natural fabric. It's pure cotton, or wool, or linen etc, it will be great. If it's polyester or viscose or something plastic - the dye won't take.

Dad's tip: How to seal and protect a wood cutting board used for food

My father told me this great tip for looking after cutting boards.

He loved wood - he built often out of wood, and would usually varnish wood to protect it. He always nagged us if we were careless with water around wood. He told me that with cutting boards, you could protect the wood and seal it by coating it with vegetable oil, such as olive oil. Then you place it out in the sun to cure - and it creates a foodsafe varnish. This would be instead of the usual wood oils such as (non-food safe) linseed oil.

You just do it once in awhile when it wears off.

After I did it the wood was supple and felt beautiful again - as the wood's moisture was sealed in.

How to make your own simple sturdy cotton book bag

In NZ school kids have vinyl pouches to take their reading and workbooks home every day. They don't cost much, but also don't last for long before shredding and becoming landfill fodder. It's actually REALLY easy to make your own out of a sturdy fabric such as heavy cotton.

I embroidered my daughter's bags before I sewed the pieces together (photo below) but it's not necessary. I can picture other kids having sturdy cotton book bags in their favourite bright colour, like orange, or blue, or even pink, with matching colour of bias binding/ribbon along the edges. Just having a well-made real fabric book bag would look great.

The design of the bags is one piece only - with a bias binding sewn around the edges. (I was about to use thick strap material, but a crafty friend stopped me fortunately - so my embroidering was not wasted.) Bias binding is easy to use and light. However, I did notice after that there are a huge variety of choices in ribbon out there in a haberdashery shop, which would be of very little cost - if anyone thought that bias binding was too expensive.


You will need...
Heavy cotton fabric - at least 1 m
Bias binding (preferred) or ribbon
A few centimeters of velcro for keeping the top closed
Scrap of leather or other tough material
Marking pencil (white or dark)
Long ruler or straight edge
White fabric name label
The usual: Thread, needle, scissors
A sewing machine if possible

Step 1: Trace and cut out the one piece shape for the bag. The design of this book bag is one piece - wrapping around the bottom. Draw the bag shape using a white pencil crayon or black marker, depending on whether your fabric is light or dark. Use a ruler to measure and mark straight lines. The large book bag piece is 45 cm long and 36 cm wide, the small bag is 38.5 long and 26.5 wide. Bevel the edges of one end as in illustration above. The bevelled end folds over 9 cm in the large bag and 8.25 for the small. (But I just traced the old cheaply made book bags - it was really easy that way.)

Step 2: Measure and cut binding. Fold the bag piece in half, with the square end stopping where it should, and mark where it should come up to. Cut your bias binding by following around the edge. Piece 1: Along the square edge that goes inside flap lid. Piece 2: Follows the left edge of the bag, and then along the flap, and hten down the right side again.

Step 3: Sew binding along edges. I strongly recommend pinning first. Fold the short piece of binding along the square end first, pin it into place, then sew along it using a sewing machine using an appropriate thread colour. Then fold over the long piece that covers the edge including along the flap and down the other side. Pin, then sew it. Presto, the bag is made! Now you just have to handsew on velcro inside the flap, and a reinforcing piece of leather or other sturdy material (to the outside opposite the velcro. You could also optionally sew on a pull tab.

It's alot harder to describe than it is to make it. If you can borrow another book bag to follow the design, it's really easy.

Plum Wine

We have been forging a new path - where we have not gone before!

Making wine!

Who knows if it will work - but we've been doing it more or less alright so far. I researched both the old ways and the new (Aunt Daisy's Preserving in an old book, and the internet), and have come up with my own simplified start to making wine.

But a really great find is a post by Althea on lifestyleblock.co.nz. Althea calls himself a "lazy winemaker". Although I don't entirely agree - he is at least a very natural and great winemaking person. Lazy winemaker's method here.

It appears that in the old days they didn't add yeast, and they certainly didn't add "Campden tablets ". But the little bubbler (see photo) that we added to the top of our fermenter container was very cheap ($6.50 NZ) and easy to install (cut hole in bucket).

The winemaking process involves a few stages, "musting" (about a week), then "fermenting" (time varies, but another while), then storing it for awhile in bottles (months). We've learned that stirring during musting is to prevent mould from forming on top of the crushed plums and water. And installing a tap on our fermenting container would have been easy before we added the strained plum juice! Next year we'll be better...the hardest part is starting.

Here is my thought - modern life is so elaborate that it makes you not want to take anything on. Learning is growing from something small. When I read Aunt Daisy's "Wine Making Hints" and Recipes, they are so basic, and you realize that people were just doing it with what they had - which is far more inspiring of action.

Aunt Daisy's PLUM WINE

Allow 8 to 12 lb. [3.6 – 5.5 kg] very ripe plums to each gallon of water, and 3 1/2 lb. to 4 lb. [1.6 -1.8 kg] sugar, according to sweetness of plums. Use an earthenware or wooden vessel, not tin or any metal. [Nowadays we can use plastic containers.] Do not let the wine get chilled during the fermentation, but keep it in a fairly warm room, and do not move the vessel about. Put plums into vessel, mash well, cover with hot water, and leave 6 to 8 days or while fermentation is active, stirring frequently every day. Then strain the juice through a muslin bag, measure it, add sugar as above. Let this stand to work as long as it will. Skim every day, keeping some juice to add after skimming so as to keep the same quantity. It may work for a month or two. When it has quite ceased working, bung tightly, or bottle and cork well. Should be ready in 3 months, but the longer it is left to mature the better. Wine matures best in a wooden keg. Keep the keg covered with a light cloth during fermentation period as it attracts a lot of insects.

Feel free to use a Campden tablet though! And make the best of both worlds.



February 6 2013 update:

We did eventually produce drinkable wine.  It was alright - it was relaxing to drink - but the stuff we made on our first go was not as good as storebought wine.  We didn't really understand what we were doing - but having tried, we had at least taken the mystique out of it.  Now this year, we are ready to go!  I am brewing wine (strawberry/plum wine this year) for which I carefully and cleanly followed a recipe, and also researched methods on Youtube (and got advice from a cool lady who used to make wine all the time who works at the local library).  The "musting" bin was a food quality ex-jam bucket with a tight lid this year, so more clean than a nasty huge old bucket - and a smaller and more controllable amount until I really know what I am doing.  I utilized "pectolase" a few days after I had mixed the cut up fruit and sugar, then added yeast.  It has really frothed up and smells amazing.  We have also bought a beautiful glass demijohn, so the brewing process will be more sterile (less skanky).

It's just that the first time you start, there are a myriad of methods, and you don't really know which to use (or why).  I know that our process will be clean, sterile, and there is no reason why the wine won't turn out great!  Although our wine was a little more like moonshine last year - with random alcohol level - it was still the most fun and rewarding thing that we did with our plums!  Going down and tasting it, or having a free glass of wine - even though it was imperfect - was really fun.

Knitting

While camping I actually finally had time to knit (all the time). It was so fun! Making a baby blanket for my best friend's new baby in Canada gave me a reason to learn enough basic skills.

The beanie at the top is my first ribbing (2 knit, 2 pearl) and addition of colour. I had found a bag of wool at an op shop. There was very fine natural coloured wool - which I thought would work with bright colours as highlights.

I ended up making a stingray for Troy after making a filler piece for the back of that beanie that resembled a stingray. (The construction of the beanie was guessed at as I didn't follow a pattern - now I know how I would do it next time - more like the hourglass shape, one piece, sewn together afterwards at the sides. This beanie needed a filler piece.) Stingrays are very 2D anyways. But when I made Luke a snapper, sewing on knitted triangles at the side made the fish more 3D shaped.

Moss graffiti or garden decor

Spotted on do the green thing, Anna Garforth's beautiful use of it:
http://www.dothegreenthing.com/blog/grow_your_own_graffiti

Original tutorial is here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Moss-Graffiti/


RECIPE
Several clumps of moss
1 pot of natural yoghurt or 12oz buttermilk (experiment to see which works best)
1/2 tsp of sugar
blender
Plastic pot (with a lid)
Paint brush
Spray mist-er
- If growing you're moss inside you will also need a seed tray containing compost


1 - Horticulturist's of the past came up with a brilliant recipe to encourage the growth of moss to age and add interest to their garden designs, this recipe can be used as an an environmentally friendly alternative to spray paint. The success of the recipe itself can be very hit and miss and is very much dependent upon choosing exactly the right location and weather conditions; moss thrives in the damp and can most often be found growing near to a leaky drainpipe or rain-soaked wall. If you have difficulty finding the right climate in which to grow your moss, grow it indoors (where it can be frequently spray-misted with water) and transplant it outdoors as soon as it has begun to grow.

2 - Moss can often be found growing in damp areas, between the cracks in paving stones, on drainpipe covers or, in this example, near to a riverbank.


3 - Gather several clumps of moss in a bag and take them to a place where you can easily wash them


4 - Carefully clean the moss of as much mud as possible.


5 - Place some of the moss, the buttermilk (or yoghurt) and sugar into a blender and start to mix. This must be done in small phases as the moss can easily get caught in the blades of blender. Keep blending until you have a green milkshake with the texture of a thick smoothie. Pour the mixture into a plastic container.


6 - Paint your chosen design onto your chosen location or (if growing indoors) on top of a flattened layer of compost in a seed tray.


7 - Ensure that your moss design is kept moist by spray-misting it with water regularly. After a few weeks the moss should start to re-constitute and grow.


8 - If growing moss indoors transfer it to a suitable location (where it is likely to be kept damp) outdoors. Return regularly to the location and see its progress, spray-misting it if it starts to dry out.

Knitting Rhythms

There is something about knitting which is relaxing. If you follow a natural groove, just doing it, then there is a rhythm that you are following. Isn't it interesting how many of these old arts are being taken up by people again?

You see, the thing is, they bring natural rhythm back into people's lives. I can picture the many activities in people's lives, that modern living has taken out - activities to do with harvesting food from the garden work, sewing, quilting. Now that we don't have to do these things all the time, we can see the peace that they brought into our lives.

Unicorn costume for a girl - second go

Vaulting a tall horn on the front of a girl's head is no easy task. Although the red hair that I used that night for the next day school dress up did look a little clownlike - I think that the solution we found for the horn was excellent.

In the end, for my second go, I used the resource of balloon holder cup and a chopstick, as the horn had to be very light. (My first horn used a single cigar tin but it ended up heavy, and unwieldy.) Shane helped me with his engineering skills - and constructed the horn's support (2 lengths of waistband elastic sewed together to be double wide.) This costume was fashioned after Star, from the book The Baby Unicorn (by Jean and Claude Marzollo, illustrated by RJ Blake). This was also the reason for using orangey-red cloth for the hair.






Here are the steps - I am definitely not bothering to re-draw them in Illustrator, here are a few scanned sketches for anyone interested to understand the idea:

STEP 1
THE HORN: Balloon cup holder plus stick (balloon stick chopstick any stick). Then you cello tape card or thin cardboard around it to make a light sheath.
STEP 2
Tape the cardboard round and round with clear tape.
STEP 3
Then you handsew a layer of pretty cloth around it, which gives it structure - but more importantly the ability to sew it to a base.
STEP 4
Make an elastic headband to mount the horn on. It helps to make the location where the horn will go double wide creating a rectangle - we used elastic waistband which worked very well. STEP 5
THE HOODIE: Before you sew the horn on its mounting to the hoodie, sew some hair onto the hoodie. I sewed some non-frayable material, cut in wide strips almost to the end. Once I had sewed along the hood's seam with a sewing machine (definitely use one if you can or this part would be laborious), I then cut the strips into many far narrower ones.
STEP 6
After the horn is mounted on the band -- sew it to the base by hand, make it strong -- put it on the child, as well as the hoodie. This way you'll be able to see where the horn should come through the hoodie. Then cut a hole and stick the horn through. STEP 7
After you take the horn and hoodie off, you can sew the widened band to the underside hoodie, giving it a wide surface area to support that horn. (You can cut off the extra straps that extend past the widened part, you won't need them anymore).
STEP 8
Handsew on ears of your choice (I looked at a real horse image to see how their ears are placed first.) Then you are done!