Putting it Together - Spool Knitting

Most of you must know what this is. We used to make these out of wooden spools and 4 nails when I was a kid. You make a rope or tiny knit tube with yarn and this little gadget.

I got this for Poppy's 7 year old. The fascination was short lived so I swiped it thinking I could make some nice neck chains for my Felt flowers. The other night I thought I would experiment with it. I "watched" a Dr Who that I had already seen and worked on the chain. I say watched, because I found that I had to keep my eyes on the craft constantly, otherwise I might not "pick up" all the bottom threads. I've seen some homemade ones that use little paddles instead of posts and I'm wondering if that might be easier to use.

Not only was this more concentration intensive than I imagined, after the 1 hour show was over, I had only 12" of chain done. As I have said in yesterday's post, at an average of $6 an hour for minimum wage (I know, not all states are the same, and I wouldn't want to live in Kentucky), that's not great money. I'd need a much longer piece for what I wanted to do, long and doubled, at least 60 inches. That's 5 times my original piece! At that rate the chain alone would be $30 not including material or other fees involved.

Maybe it was me. I could make it faster, I'm sure! So I tried it again, and again and still the same results, no matter what I did. I'm pretty fast at crafting too. I would probably have to charge at least $35 for that darn 60" rope chain with nothing on it, just to make minimum wage. Would you buy it?

I think I'm going to try some more timing experiments like this. Would you like to see more? Let me know if you can do this faster.

Putting it Together - My Favorite Adhesive

When I was in my first serious Design class at the Cleveland Institute of Art, I was warned by the instructor that if I built something it had better be constructed well. My first project was a hat that I constructed out of sheet acrylic, a hat with windows.

That acrylic was not easy to work with. Cutting was fine, but gluing it together was a nightmare. I tried EVERYTHING. Superglue (cyanoacrylate), silicone caulk, epoxy - any and everything that could glue acrylic.

 I finally had it assembled. It was decorative, so there were small pieces as well as the larger structure. I was proud, but concerned, with good reason. As I walked up to make my presentation, smaller pieces started falling of. The larger structure held, but it was pretty much a disaster. At least is wasn't as much of a disaster as the student that squeezed toothpaste all over a motorcycle helmet for his project.

Oh if Only I knew about E6000 back then. Since I have graduated I have been a product designer. I have actually attended several seminars on various adhesives, their composition and their abilities. It wasn't until I started crafting again, until I found E6000.

If you haven't tried E6000, you don't know what you're missing. For crafting, it is the greatest stuff. It can take up to 3 days to dry completely, but when it does, WOW. It adheres to almost anything, metal bales to metal bezel cups? No Problem!

Read the reviews at Epinions for E6000 if you don't believe me. This stuff is beyond great!