Tag: crafts

Fuzzy red apple

Pompom apple

It’s Apple Day at the Museum of English Rural Life next Saturday – October 19th. I needed to come up with an apple-related activity for families, but because my usual teaching space is being turned into a café for the day we’ll be doing the activity in the museum itself. Because a large number of our objects are on open display, this means the activity has to be very clean – no glue, no glitter, no paint.

Enter this ridiculously cute apple pompom! I used a mug as a template for the outer circle, and a bottle of tipp-ex for the centre. This results in a pompom about the size of a tennis ball, and uses about 20 metres of chunky wool. After you’ve tied off the centre of the pompom, you just wrap a pipe cleaner through before you remove the cardboard, and then twist the ends into a stalk and a leaf. Ta-da!

I know it’s just a simple little thing, but I’m disproportionately pleased with how this has come out. The yarn is so soft, and the pompom is a lovely size, and I might just have to rummage through my yarn stash and make some for myself! I’m usually opposed to the making of novelty yarn items that have no functional value, but I can feel myself being strongly swayed by this one.

If you want to make one for yourself, all you need to do is take yourself and 50p (plus the £1 entrance fee for adults) down to MERL next weekend!

Feathers and sequins

Feathers for mask

Oh my goodness, the feathers. Fluff everywhere. My Shed will never be the same again.

Once the glue’s dry, I’ll be getting out the hot glue gun to attach these feathery extravagances to the sides of a mask. The black feathers and the sparkly bits were originally attached to the mask in the first place, but the feathers were on very long stems and a lot of them were broken.

I bought the mask late last year, with no particular occasion in mind, and it’s been in somewhat careless storage ever since. So, I ripped off the sparkly bits, ripped off the feathers, and then spent absolutely ages trimming the stems off and pulling apart the little red feathers until they were the right size. And then I glued it all back together again. Except that I got a bit carried away and used far too much PVA, so now it’s all sandwiched between clingfilm and weighted down under a pile of books until it’s properly stuck together.

I also sewed a rather unsightly piece of wide black elastic to the back of the mask, which seems to keep it in place over the top of my glasses without squashing the frames into my face. Not the most elegant solution, but after a great deal of trial and error it turned out to be the most effective. Wearing a mask over glasses is always awkward, so I’m pleased to have found something that stays put and doesn’t hurt!