December is Well Upon Us!

Hello Readers!

I don't know that I have a lot to show today despite the fact there are a ton of photographs...

go figure....

Let's get on with it and I'll give the show and tell today!

I had to go to Alma, Nebraska to a dr.'s appointment late in November. I missed that appointment by a couple of hours and there were folks that were not happy with me at that time. That's all straightened out though and no one is unhappy with me at this time. While in Alma, Ma and I went to the thrift store there. I spent about $12. Can't remember exactly what I bought but among the loot brought home were a boatload of seed beads in various colors that I dropped $6 on at the the thrift store. I put some of them to work adorning bracelets. Bracelets and more bracelets. And then a few more thrown in for good measure.

Seed beads weren't the only beads available to me for making bracelets. Not too long ago, few months maybe, I bought a pound of glass ebeads in an array of colors. 

Trust me when I say, I am flush with beads!

The purple one is a zodiac print on heavy cotton with glass ebeads wired to the form.

This one is sparkly pink tulle wrapped with pale pink satin ribbon and gold braid. I didn't think this one needed any beads.

This one is wrapped with print silk fabric from a shirt and wrapped with ebeads and copper wire that came out of a washing machine.

This one is exactly the same as the last one with the exceptions it has more beads and the wire work is a bit more fancy.

This one is satin fabric from a coat lining wrapped with embroidery thread and blue bells sewn on.

This one is pale green linen from a jacket with ebeads and blue bells wired on.

This one is cream colored woven fabric from that coat where the satin came from with ebeads sewn on in a random pattern.

This one is the silk shirt with floral wire and ebeads.

This one is cream colored fleece with orange acrylic yarn wrapped and purple shades of seed beads sewn on.

This one is the satin fabric with seed beads, ebeads and bugle beads sewn on.

This one is seed beads sewn to cream colored satin in a pattern around the outer edge.

Terrible picture but this is what it looks like close up....all wonky like! 

This one is again the silk fabric with copper wire and ebeads wired on all willy nilly.

This one is cream colored linen from a pair of pants with plastic perler beads sewn on. 

Very colorful!

I got a lot of use out of some of that silk shirt and that copper wire.  I still have tons of that shirt fabric and miles of that copper wire!

This one is black t shirt fabric wrapped with copper wire and ball chain. I like this one the best of them all.

Heavy cotton material with ebeads wrapped with floral wire. 

When I got my car in July of 16, there was a blanket bag full of fabric in the trunk. This purple zodiac print came from that bag.
I need a sewing machine.

And we're almost done with bracelets...

This one is black t shirt fabric with ebeads and floral wire wrapping. 

If you want to make your own bracelet...or a boatload of bracelets...here's how it's done.

You'll need a thick piece of wire or a cable tie. You'll want to wrap it in masking tape or something similar so it will keep its shape somewhat. How do you know if it is the right size? If it fits your wrist, it's the right size.

Then you want to take some 1-2 inch wide strips of fabric, any old fabric will do....and wrap that bracelet till you think it has enough fabric on it. Then either sew things to it, wire things or whatever you want to do to it. And you'll have yourself a bracelet. 

And of course, beings I'm stuck in my chair more often than not...I've done a bit of crocheting as well.

Bag made with macrame cord and crochet cotton. Handle was crocheted into a spiral rope with crochet cotton thread.

This one is made with acrylic yarn.

This is the bag shown in the last post before I completed it.

It has a lot going on. The main parts of the bag are crocheted with acrylic yarn. Nothing special. The round pocket on the front is lined with sweater material. 

Behind the fabric beads is lined with gray fleece from a sweat shirt. I dragged the big plastic button out of my button jar.

There's a fish on the long side pocket that I embroidered on felt back in September. It is sewn to the pocket of the bag.

I made crochet cotton tassels with white pony beads to go along the bottom edge of the bag. There's a bit of crocheting in black crochet cotton along the edge as well. The fish emblems are crocheted from acrylic yarn and crocheted to the edging. Each fish has a short length of silver chain attached just to give it some movement.

The handle or strap of the bag is made from a white belt that I embroidered stripes onto and then crocheted to the top of the bag with some black nylon cording. It's a sturdy and hefty bag. Everyone who has seen has commented favorably on it. It will go to the gift shop at the Art Center in Lucas.

This one isn't anything special really. Crocheted with some skinny nubby yarn in an ombre pattern of sorts. There really wasn't a pattern. All of these bags come out of my head. I make it all up as I go.

I braided the handle of the ombre bag and used two d rings to attach it to the bag.

Seems to me I made more bags than this in November...I know there is at least one more finished bag and 2 more in the works still.

I write in my journal sometimes...usually a few times a week. Sometimes more if I really have something to say. Other times, I just draw in it. I got a new set of cheap ball point pens a few weeks back at Dollar General and just had to check them out. This is what happened when I let the muse run free for a few hours.

There's one of those unfinished bags beneath this crocheted hair net for my sister who is a lunch lady. It's an experiment. I've never made a hair net before. I'm waiting on a package in the mail that contains a long elastic string needed to finish this experiment.

It is made from stretchy sock yarn I picked up at Hobby Lobby on the clearance wall for $1.79 some time back.

I've been working on some paper mache projects.

This little white truck with blue windows is no where near done. It will have wheels that actually turn as soon as I figure out how to do the axle for them. It's just a cardboard box built out of chipboard from other cardboard boxes all taped together with masking tape. I can't even really call this paper mache. I didn't put any layers of paper on it. I will get back to it eventually.

At the moment I am working on Benjamin J. Hohrner, World Traveler-Seeker of Knowledge.

I didn't start taking pictures until he was already taking human form. Humanish form. He started out life as an empty coffee creamer bottle minus its lid. I jammed a 2 inch styrofoam ball onto the neck of the bottle, put four holes in the bottle to accommodate his arms and legs and covered everything with masking tape. His arms and legs are pipe cleaners fattened up with layers of scrap fabric. 

His nose is hard to explain so I won't. It grows from here anyway. His hands are going to change a lot from here as well.

His club hands are now gone. I cut them off. Snip with the scissors I went and he was handless for a few moments. I built him some new ones with masking tape and fabric scraps. I also bulked up his limbs and feet and crocheted him a jaunty orange fedora. He will not stand on his own yet. This is his backside.

As I said. His nose grew. REALLY grew!  He has eyes now. You can't see them at the moment but you'll get to see them soon.

He doesn't need a mouth. This will be explained shortly.

His legs were a little weak so I made them sturdier with a bamboo skewer up the backside of each leg. Helped tremendously!

Time for some clothes for old Benny Boy. He can't be running amock in his birthday suit.

He's a little long in the waist, I fear, but onward I plunged nonetheless. His shirt is a sleeve from a woman's lightweight t shirt. His pants are black velvet with burgundy roses printed on it. The roses are on the inside of his pants. They're just black. I wish I had gotten a good picture of his boots but I didn't this time. They are doll shoes with little black laces. They look like combat boots. Those little boots have been hanging from the ceiling in my deskroom for the last 12-13 years, just waiting to be put to use other than hanging around. 

I really wanted to make his hair and beard from real fur. I have a mink collar around here some freaking where! But as is the usual....I can't find things when I want them. I looked. But did not find the mink collar. Instead I came across a huge fake fur coat in my closet that I've never worn. Benny got some hair and beard! He has a rubber band around his mustache to hold it on while the glue dries. Poor old guy had rubbers around his head several times! 

His eyes can see you now. I removed the masking tape from them and gave them some definition. 

He needs eyebrows.

Notice also, his arms are mighty short! We're gonna do some surgery.

Benny got new forearms and hands. I had to give him the illusion of an undershirt cause now his shirt sleeves were too short. 

I crocheted him a messenger bag and sewed him a backpack.

These are his new hands. The one on the right is how the hands came. I shaved off the red fingernails and the warts on both hands before covering them with masking tape and attaching them to the arms. I had to trim his old hands but I kept them on for length. Now his arms are much more proportioned. His legs are always gonna be short unfortunately.

I added a couple more rounds to the brim of his hat before putting a shiny silver woven ribbon hat band on. There's a tiny gold buckle on the other side of his hat band. The crossed keys hat pin is an actual hat pin. Benny holds the keys to the universe. There are two keys: one to open minds and one to open hearts. There's a master key somewhere but Benny misplaced it on his travels.

His backpack was easy to make once I figured out the straps. There's a little glass cross sewn to the corner of his backpack. Everyone should travel with Jesus.

On his messenger bag is a little stone powder horn with a copper chain. It was once a pendant on a necklace. Benny has a necklace too. His is a wire wrapped stone marble hanging from a ball chain. There will be a cloth drawstring bag hanging from that ball chain as well. The bag will hang from a ring up higher on the chain.

Hanging from his back pack on this side is a length of chain and a gold carrot charm.  There might be a few more things hung from that chain. Not sure yet.

His hat has, since this picture was taken, evolved some. I took a walk around the front of the house on the hunt for a proper stick and some chicken feathers this morning. Those are tiny wren feathers in his hat in this picture. There are three chicken feathers with them as I type.

He has a bright blue bed roll atop his backpack now. It's made from a scrap of blue sweater material, tied up with a length of gray leather thong. 

Inside his messenger bag is a handmade sketchbook and his ID card. There will also be a tiny blue pencil, a tiny seashell and some fake coins.

I found the perfect stick this morning on my jaunt so I had to do surgery on his left hand again. I took the hack saw and sawed off his fingers so I could warp them around the stick so he could hold on to it. It looks a little weird! I'm thinking he needs a bird, a snake, a critter of some sort to sit on that hand to hide it a bit. 

I'm working on his ukelele that will be slung over his shoulder. It's made from a cardboard box, some chipboard, embroidery thread, tiny eye screws, glue, balsa wood, leather and tape. We'll see how that works out when I get it strung.

It's way passed my bedtime so I'm outta here. I'm out of things to talk about anyway!

Thanks for hanging in there to the end! 

We shall revisit Benjamin J. Hohrner when next we meet up.

Remember

Be kind to one another!

It matters!

831

Peace