Just for the fun of it

 Better watch out for the big holes before!

Ocean future

Got some doll eyes and brought the animals alive...

Plastic lace

Just taught myself to make "lace" ornaments from a potato sack. Boring work as the stitching takes forever, but it has potential.

Back to meditation

For lack of material, which is a good thing considering ..., I am back to mindless hole-filling. The base is a stiff plastic sheet from a potato sack.

Saddler in the making

With the small quantities of net trash trickling in I focused on the leather work instead. I learned two handle the pricker to make small holes for the seam rather than using the punch pliers.

No material - Hurrah!

For many good reasons I never had enough material to make anything all summer. Only now the clementine and orange nets start showing up again. Just enough for a small handbag.

Hardware store goody

Visiting the local hardware store the other day I made a chance find in a trash container of one of the employees. I saw these nets which they use to pack fireplace wood and asked if I could have it. Easier said than done - I had to get permission from the manager, and they refused to collect it separately. But at least I was allowed to take the bit I had seen. It had a shiny silvery quality. I immediately bobbin-laced it and found some fabric to go with it. The left-overs went into the knitted colored bag below, where I was a bit short on material.

Down the family line

When I was a child, my aunt showed me how to weave coasters using a paperboard basis.
40 years later, my daughter picked that up and made herself the soap dish on the left from a one-way plastic bowl.
Which triggered me to weave some pretty yarn I had bought recently into a yoghurt cup as a template to show another child. Easy to do - see the workflow below.

Plug and no socket

The bags are typically quickly done, but the handles and the fastener are always an issue. What to use? This time I re-used some old cable and broken earplugs for the lock. I am definitely having fun!

Bottle caps against polio

Visiting the local library last week I came across this 4/5 empty box of bottle caps asking people to donate them. I learned that there is this initiative Deckel drauf which has been collecting caps for some time now to generate funds for polio vaccinations. 500 caps equal one vaccination. As my collection box in the basement was overflowing anyhow, I immediately donated the whole lot - and forgot to photograph it properly 😒. It was about twice the amount of caps fitting into the official collection box and certainly at least worth one vaccination😊.
I always had a feeling that those caps are good for something and had collected them for years now - much to the amusement of my colleagues at work. So far, I have used them for some artwork -  and supplied my colleagues for the tree which we made for our dull stairway at work.

Point to...

With my partner, we recently came up with the "Sawblade clock". As you buy clockworks in twos, I wanted to make one from my trash material as well. Here you go: orange nets, packing material and a computer mouse chip which still clicks.

Back to old habits

What can I say - making bags is very satisfying.

Shiny trash

Some one-way nets have a nice structure. You can spray-paint them with gold, silver or such color and get a very different quality.

Mobile protection

There are these floppy one-way nets which are really not good for much, but they are useful as protective layer, e.g. in mobile covers.

For lack of better ideas...

 ... I filled some of these sturdy plastic sheets from one-way nets with thread. Great to relax.
In the end, these things look quite professional and make nice gifts also.






 

New Years Hurray!

One could really become philosophical about it, but for now, I will just report the facts.

I was raised not to waste. My family were not at all environmentalists, but it simply did not have access to all the easy things. So, preserving everything and anything became my second nature. Lots of people find it funny or simply crazy, but look, what is happening now.

I just learned that people spend money to buy reusable bags to buy their fruits in. It is really great that they do that, but actually, you get everything you need with your shopping. In order to make reusable shopping containers, the bags should not weigh much as you do not want to pay over for it at the cashier. Therefore, in contrast to the nets in my former blogs, this time I did not put fancy gimmicks on the nets and simply used a waxy thread for closing. Waxy quality is important as the thread should slide smoothly through the net.
Hurray, here are your light-weight reusable shopping helpers!

Isn't it funny, you can buy the same bags I make from used shopping nets in hardware stores and in (!) bio-shops. Folks, just do not rip open your purchase, think first about its second live! By the way, the garlic net on the right is the perfect protector for one of those slippery thread spools which keep unwinding. Something you could buy as well; I have written about that before.

More on the topic:
People buy bags to collect their trash. I always wondered why they do that as one cannot avoid getting bags with any shopping trip - and I am not talking about those you can refuse at the cashier. No, apples are bagged, so is toilet paper and stuff you order via the internet. Lots of bags around. Size and shape may be not so great to fit the trash container, but who cares - just be a bit more watchful when you fill in the trash.

With that - have a great start into 2019!

Leftovers and more

Winter season, the mood changes, and I switch to other material for a while. Having a woodworker for a partner makes much possible. Here we found uses for his "leftovers".
Enjoy the quite time!

Blue nets...

 ... are rare, but the little I had inspired this shopper with felt handles and lining. Loop-knitted.