Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Weaving for Bears





These pictures are years and years old. As I look at them I am pretty sure they are from another era of my life when the children were small and projects done at home by ourselves were satisfying. These handmade items were woven by my children for the very bears that model them.  Easily contented models are such a blessing.




All were woven on a little Brio weaving loom that I picked up off Ebay, I think. I had it for years and the children had done many projects on it when a weaving friend stopped in and said the magic words, "You know that loom folds up right?" No, I did not.  It was shipped to me unfolded and I never thought to even check if it would fold. lol What an extra blessing that is! It stores much easier, and with less chance of damage. Of course now the children have moved on and are no longer concerned about dressing teddy bears. The little loom sits quietly folded up on the shelf now, but hopefully the memories made beside that little loom will last a lifetime.



Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Hometanned Leather Jester's Bag

Ideas can be good and they can be bad. At one point this last year, I dreamed up a way to make a leather bag from seven triangles. They were all the same size however each triangle was a unique leather differing in bark tan or braintanned, and smoked, or dyed color. Sure, it is a one of a kind bag. Not practical, but an oddity that I can use to show people some samples of my husband’s tanning.

Front View



I can honestly say it wasn’t one of my brightest ideas. Hand sewing the triangles the right way was a bit mind boggling once you got so many together. Also, figuring out a good way to close it required a few days of pondering, but is a quite simple procedure. However those challenges were meet and conquered. (Patting myself on the back)

Back View



It reminds me of something that would belong to a jester. Being creative is good, but there are also many ways in which it backfires on you. Somehow I don’t think that my hometanned triangle jester’s bag will ever make it as profitable selling item, but I might be surprised. Life is strange like that. Actually it is quite roomy and in all these pictures it was stuffed with two Walmart bags.


                                                         
                                                           Bottoms Up
                                                                             

                                                 
Can I at least get brownie points for creatively using up my leather scraps? lol