Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Two-trick Pony

It's not all knit all the time. Today we got our first snowfall, puny as it was, and to celebrate I made my own snowflakes.



These weren't exactly a slam dunk, I won't lie. I had most of the tools I needed, except for a rubber mallet. O.K., so one little lie--somewhere in this house, there is a rubber mallet. Its whereabouts, however, elude me, so I bought another one. This one will be hidden and it will take bamboo shoots under my fingernails and hot sauce in my eyes to get me to tell where I'll hide it. And perhaps a teeny second little lie--my round nose pliers suck, so I bought a better pair. You can barely bend a marshmallow with the old ones, and as we all know, good tools make good crafts. Oh yeah. Beads. Maybe a few more jumped into the cart. So except for those things, I had everything I needed to make these ornaments.




The wire frames are pretty stiff, so making the loops at the end of each spoke is kind of tough. The beads can be pricey, but I got them on sale, so that helped. I was pretty big into jewelry making in the past, so my stash was, um, adequate. It was fun to sort through the boxes, rediscover what I have and make plans for other pieces.

These snowflakes are destined to be gifts, except for the first one I made, before I realized I'd forgotten how to make proper open loops. That one is hanging on my car rear view mirror. I have no problems with its imperfections, but since I can do better, I saved the better ones for the gifts. It's kind of like the first pancake you make--it doesn't always look as nice as the rest but it still tastes good.

14 comments:

  1. Those are gorgeous snowflakes and I like the pancake analogy, too. What a coincidence though -- I needed a rubber mallet yesterday and ours is missing too.

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  2. OMG - I love your snowflakes!! What a great gift idea! You have many talents!

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  3. Those are really lovely, and would look wonderful catching the lignt in a window all year round. Not much into holiday decorating anymore, but Mom and I used to have a lot of fun crafting for the holidays.

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  4. Great snowflakes! I love adding little ornaments to gift packaging. They'll be great.

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  5. Love the snowflakes! They are beautiful! Since you do all this beading, you could make stitch markers. (just thinking of another fun thing to do with your rubber mallet and those beads that jumped into your cart, lol)

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  6. Pretty! I keep meaning to start beading. Gotta add that to my list of crack-lilke addictions.

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  7. They are beautiful!!!!

    Buying new craft stuff so that you can complete stuff you already have, does NOT count as a new purchase. So, you're good! LOL

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  8. Lovely snowflakes.
    One of two things will now happen.
    Either your original rubber mallet with reappear since you bought a new one.
    Or you'll put the new one somewhere so safe you won't be able to find it again.

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  9. These are beautiful!

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  10. OMG, they are gorgeous...you are so creative, I love it :)

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  11. Beautiful snowflake ornaments! They're going to make really wonderful gifts!

    We didn't get any of the real stuff Tue, just rain. But we definitely have snow today!

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  12. Beautiful snowflakes! They make me want to curl up in front of the fire with a mug of cocoa, or maybe a flute of champagne...

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  13. I've made these! They turn out to be beautiful. I made them at a bead shop, so didn't have to finish the loop at the end myself. I hope I have time to make more this year.

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