It is one of those weeks when I have very little news, though a few things have made me smile.... Some lovely sunny days; chats with folk in the park; friends who really stepped up for me when I asked for help, discovering more flowers in my neglected garden; success in getting a few projects finished.
Today, I thought I would talk you through a new project that I attempted for fun. Paper Weaving. My son Tom knows I like trying new things, so at Christmas he gave me a set of three kits to make hot air balloons, one red, one blue and one green. Tom lives in Denmark and apparently paper weaving is a popular hobby there.
They have sat on my desk nagging me to have a go but they looked a bit daunting. You get eight sheets of pre-cut paper 'snakes' which you pop out and sort.
Next you pair them up and twist each pair together to make stripey snakes.
As you can see they form a sort of an 'S' shape, and six of each colour curl to the right and six to the left.
I decided to watch the video suggested for the next bit and that's where it became confusing. I had six of each colour curling right and six curling left, while the demonstrator on the video had all twelve of one colour curling right, and all of the second colour curling left. So having watched it through a few times I had to more or less do my own thing.
The first round was fairly easy and I soon had this 'star-fish' shape.
The second round was much more difficult but I got there eventually. If you look closely you may see that some of my legs are overlapping the wrong way so I need to sort that out before I begin to weave them.
My first attempt was the red balloon and it is not very well done. As you weave each pair of strips you hold them with a paper clip, but they didn't hold well and sometimes my weaving lost tension so the pattern isn't perfect, but it is not bad for a first attempt. I am hoping the blue one turns out better and by the time I get to the green one I should be a pro!
My only other achievement was buying a clock mechanism and fitting it, with Chris' help, to the clock I made last week. It is now installed above the mantle piece mirror. I would like it to be a little bit bigger but I am confined by the size of wood I can buy, and the size of my machine. The kit came with gold hands so I sprayed them black to make them show up better.
Now I shall have another go at the blue balloon and then tidy my room a bit because Tom is coming over for a few days, and the bed sette is in here. He has tickets for the big rugby match in Bristol on Saturday and then he is coming to us on Sunday and staying until Thursday.
For a week when I have little news, I have managed to ramble on for quite a while haven't I? So that is it for this week. Thank you to all who came to visit me last week. I do appreciate your comments.
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