Showing posts with label carving. Show all posts

Handmade Hair Pins

I’m at it again. Playing with sticks. Whittling and carving. 

I have been intruiged with hair pins lately. Until a few months ago, I had no idea how women held their hair up with a hair pin. I mean, how is it possible that a single stick will hold a whole head of hair in a twisted updo? Well, obviously, easy. I was amazed when I gave it a try. I have been in favor of this type of hair pin ever since. 

Since Covid took half of my hair, I have had to be careful at how I put my hair up. I do not want to use anything that can be damaging. I stopped using stretchy bands and now only use hair pins or claw clips to keep from damaging the little bit of hair I have left. In case you missed it, you can read about my Covid hair loss HERE
After 3 months and losing 50% of my hair, It finally stopped falling out. Now it is in the regrowth phase. I use special shampoo and oil to help with the process. 

I got this fancy idea to make my own hair pins so I had my husband gather me a few sticks during his morning walk. He didn’t ask, He just knows when I gather little pieces of nature, I have a craft idea. 


I picked through them and found some that would be perfect. So the carving and sanding began.


Being a minimalist, I like to keep things simple. I do not like a lot color and I love things that come natural. Nature is full of things we can use in everyday life. I think I could seriously live in a tee pee, and eat berries for a living. Haha. 

After I carved the sticks to the size and shape I needed, I continued peeling away the bark to reveal the raw wood. Then I sanded them smooth and gave them a thin spray of clear coat. 


I gave one a burnt design with my wood burner. One has a silver painted tip and one I left alone because I thought it was just so darn cute with the “Y” shape at the top. Each one comes out different and has its own unique shape and color. 

  

I had to try them out and love how fun they are. (Girls, these can be used in self defense also) . They are approximately 6 inches long and made of Wonder wood (Wonder what kind it is). Haha. Seriously though, I think they are from an oak or maple tree. 

I plan to make some more and maybe even try to sell them. I’m just not sure this old fashion technique will ever be popular again. But who knows, there could be someone out there that would love to have a piece of nature to wear in their hair. 

What do you think?
Do you wear your hair up with hair pins?












MorningWood Bracelets

I have always been a resourceful person who thinks it is important to come up with ideas that use things we already have. I feel like there is a lot of waste in the world and people take for granted the useful things we throw away every day. This is also why I believe in shopping small businesses. They have a dream and a focus to create useful things people want or need. This is what keeps the world going around and people grateful. 


I discovered a small business that uses donated scrap wood to make hand carved bracelets. Morning wood bracelets are family owned and operated right here in the USA since 2017. Their business began by accident when they hand carved a piece of jewelry for a friend and people fell in love with it. 

Each bracelet is carved by hand using recycled wooden materials. They do not use any paints or dyes in their art. The natural colors in the wood they use paint the story. Each design is unique and no two pieces are the same. I was excited to receive two Morningwood bracelets in the mail. Every bracelet comes with a handwritten note by the creator that lets you know what kind of wood was used to create your bracelet. This adds a special personal touch. 




I received a starfish made from reclaimed Maple.




I also received a little “ILY” hand sign made from a recycled skateboard. The wood on a skateboard is layered with different colors that bring out all the colors for the charm. 

Morningwood bracelets remind me of why I love shopping small businesses. They appreciate your business and find ways to give back. 
10% of their sales go to charities from helping families in need to disaster relief. How cool is that? Someone gives them scrap materials, they make it, you buy it, they give away portions to help others and you have a cool piece of handmade art to wear. 

You should go check them out at Morningwoodbracelets.com. You will be amazed at the delicate craftsmanship put into each piece. If you have Instagram, you can find them at @moringwoodbracelets where you might see videos of the bracelets in the making.
I love wearing my new bracelets and they are a fun conversation piece. I would love to know which design you like best. Check out their website and come back here and comment which one you like most. But let me warn you, the decision will be hard. 

Facebook: Morningwoodbracelets

Pumpkin Carving

I was going to title this post “Jack O Lanterns”, but I don’t think all pumpkin carvings are actually Jacks unless they have the triangle eyes and nose. 

My daughter called me up to say her work place and her apartment are doing a pumpkin carving contest so she wanted us to carve pumpkins together. 
I had just seen large pumpkins at my local Food Lion grocery store for 1.99. That was the cheapest I had seen them all year, so I snatched up a couple of them before they were gone. 

It was also my husbands birthday so my daughter wanted to spend the day with him. We had a nice dinner and birthday cheesecake to follow. After dinner we prepared to carve our pumpkins, but first we each guessed the weight of one of the pumpkins. The one who was furtherest way from the actual weight had to do the dishes. 

My daughter decided to make her pumpkin into a Frankenstein. It was her first time carving a pumpkin so it was quite a challenge for her. 


I think her Frankenstein turned out great. 
We usually opt to paint our pumpkins each year so they will last longer and a lot less messy.

I carved mine into a VW inspired camper van. I thought I was never going to get that outside layer off and almost gave up several times. Once I had it skinned, I cut out the windows. I will never try to carve such a big pumpkin again. Wheew!


While we did the carving, we had the seed from each pumpkin baking in the oven. I do not like to see them go to waste. The aroma of the roasted seeds filled the air. They turned out delicious and make a great snack. 


It’s always fun when my daughter comes over and we do the kid like crafts we used to do. 

At the end of the night, she had to go back to her place and..... I had dishes to do. 


Do you decorate for Halloween? 
I do not usually decorate for Halloween but do decorate with a Fall theme and may add a little ghost or spider to the decor as is gets closer to Halloween night. 

Do you carve or paint your pumpkins?
Do you like the creative carvings or do you like to stick to the traditional Jack O Lanterns?


Whittle a Little

I remember back when I was about twelve years old, my daddy gave me a pocket knife. Ever since then, I have always liked pocket knives. I remember it had about a 2 inch blade, a pearl handle and his company name down the side. There was a little beaded chain at the end so you could hang it from your key ring. I played with that little knife a lot. I used to find sticks and sit and whittle them into arrows. I would also find gigantic acorns and hollow out the inside and make beads. Through the years, daddy would give me a pocket knife. I wish I still had them.

I have a few pocket knives that Nick actually found on the road during his walks. My favorite is a little pink one. 


Speaking of walking, I told Nick during our walk the other day that I was looking for a stick so I could attempt to carve a crochet hook.
Nick thought I was crazy and said, “we can’t afford a hospital visit to get a finger sewn back on”. He wasn’t even aware that I liked to whittle. I reminded him that if I have the idea in my head, I was gonna make it happen. So I picked up a few sticks from the base of a maple tree and carried them home. 


I went outside on a beautiful sunny day and began to whittle a little. After a couple wasted sticks and an hour of chiseling and carving, I had created my very own hand crafted crochet hook. My fingers were sore and blistered. I felt pretty proud of myself. I gave it couple more days for my fingers to rest then made another one. The 2nd one was a little bigger and easier to carve. 


I had to try it out so I crocheted a little mug rug for a test run. 


It worked good but was a little rough gliding through the stitches. It needs to be smoothed out a little more and some adjustments need to be made so it will be more comfortable with my grip.


I may just leave them as they are and put them away. I accomplished what I wanted to do and that satisfies me. 

What do you think? 
Have you ever carved or whittled anything?