Yesterday I mentioned using Friendly Plastic in the metal project and said I would look out any crafty things I had done with it in the past. Well I found some so will show you a variety over the next few days.
Looking back at them, it seems I enjoy the process but am at a bit of a loss what to do with the product. Mind you, does everything have to be useful? Maybe its similar to those mottos that tell you that the travelling is as important as the destination (or more so)?
This is how you buy it, in strips like a plastic ruler. Pay no attention to the price, I bought it SO long ago I doubt it's a helpful reference. It becomes malleable when placed in a bowl of hot water, melted with a heat gun or heated in an old frying pan on a piece of foil.
It can be cut with scissors while cold and hard.
The patterns you see were strips cut while cold, laid over each other then heated till they 'glooped' together. It's VERY hot when heat-gunned so don't touch it with fingers cos it'll stick to you and hurt!
While it's still quite hot you can use small cookie cutters to cut out desired shapes, let it cool and crack them away from the cutter.
They are all very light and durable when cooled but can be reheated if you want to come back to them or join them to another piece of Friendly Plastic afterwards, even after months or years.
More to come another day...
A few days ago I posted the `Spiderman in Metal' pics (http://socklet-world.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/spiderman-in-metal.html ) and said I had done work on thin metal sheets many years ago but not recently.
Well, when I investigated the damage to the little old shed at the end of the garden (which used to be a club-house for daughter many moons ago but has become a leaky dumping ground due for demolition). I found one of the things I had made dangling from the roof in a creepy abandoned kind of way.
So I brought it in to show you.
It uses the thicker brass sheet I used for the robot arms and legs (http://socklet-world.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/more-robots.html ), cut with scissors and fixed together with melted 'Friendly Plastic'. A coil of soft metal wire makes the body and antennae, also pressed into the Friendly Plastic while it's still hot and pliable. It looks more moth-like than butterfly due to its lack of colour, but I find all that kind of fluttery family slightly more creepy than beautiful when viewed close to.
Have I showed you any stuff made with Friendly Plastic? I don't think so. I'll have to hunt it out and see what I have left. Much of it was made for craft fairs or as presents. If you can't wait, you could always type the name into Google images and see what other people have made with it. Come to think of it, that's what I'm going to do right now!
Update!!!
Have just been to Google images but you get much better stuff if you look it up on Flickr- the photo sharing site. Oooh, I want to try it all over again now, or just wallow in everyone else's creativity = )
Not another in the series of Carry On films, but another day another castle.
Sorry to say I can't even remember what this one was called but it was a National Trust one and therefore nearly free (an additional charge is made for special events).
Never having seen a joust before, we just HAD to go (that's even MORE Merlin than yesterday!!!)
This is the man who did the announcements, probably known as the 'Lord High Overseer of Fisticuffs and Horseback Violence' or something (if not then he SHOULD be!)
There were 4 horses and riders nominally representing the north, the south, the east and the west of the country so the audience was asked to swear its allegiance to a region with shouting and cheering.
The battles were many and splintery and a great many wooden replica swords and bows and arrows were purchased, including by us for our (nearly grown up) children!
While we were on holiday Somerset direction (in warmer days when holidays happen, spirits are light and money runs through your fingers like the sand on the beach), the children both expressed a strong desire to go to a castle for the day. The nearest large one to where we were staying was Dunster Castle so we went there.
This is a view of it from one of the woodland walks in its ground... and it's SO Merlin...
even though the recent series' were set in France to look more traditionally English (go figure!).
The visit went so well that we decided to go the whole hog and join the Natonal Trust for the year and visit lots of other places. There was a special offer on the day to get your entrance money back and a third off the price for the rest of the year.
This was the area for signing up (the stables) and we have been to lots of other places near us since to make it worthwhile. Boy enjoys the walking through woods and grounds most (and the occasional cafe treat but that's really expensive so we usually self cater) and the rest of us enjoy the photo opportunities, occasional dressing ups and enjoying the luxury without the cleaning or expense of owning it.
I have always fancied a library like Mr Bennett though, where I could just shut myself away and read from my many shelves of beautifully bound books.
It's also the place one of the weird pavement photos was taken.
See http://socklet-world.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/weird-pavements.html
Remember the Spiderman in Metal post from a few days ago?
( http://socklet-world.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/spiderman-in-metal.html )
Well the other thing I made for the Spiderman-obsessed birthday boy (man) was a version of 'Pin the tail on the donkey' called 'Pin the Spiderman on the Building' and here's how I made it:
1. Draw out a building on a large sheet of paper
2. Print out a few Spiderman images and a Green Goblin or other suitable adversary of your choice (The only reason they're black and white is that we had no ink left in the coloured cartridge although if you're doing this for kids colouring them in could be an activity at the party).
3. Sew, or if you don't like sewing fold, a long strip of red fabric into a bandana or blindfold shape.
4. Draw the characteristic Spiderman eyes and webby-ness onto the front of the blindfold.
5. Cut out the Spiderman shapes and the Green Goblin, leaving a generous amount of paper round the images. Put blu-tack on the back of each one.
6. Play the game!
*Choose a window for the Green goblin to be in and press him there with the
blu-tack.
*Blindfold the first player and turn them round 3 times to disorientate them. *Face them towards the building and they must use their Spidey-senses to try
to put their (blu-tacked) Spiderman near the foe.
*Repeat with each player.
*The winner is the one who gets their hero closest to the villain!
As you'd expect from a springtime the fairy, the focus is all about freshness, youth and new life springing up. So the Springtime Fairy Queen has light, bright colours and an air of youth about her.
In fact she has a total teen-vibe about her royal presence I think!
And here she is, all ethereal and floaty between her much more down-to-earth guards with attitude. Girl power!
These are the fairies that guard the Queen of Springtime (more of her another day) and have to be as unobtrusive as possible when on duty.
So their costumes are made from Rose leaves and Ivy...
And they hold sharp grasses in their hand to hide the entrance to the fairy palace.
They may look gentle and delicate but you can tell from their stance they have been trained in combat and are not to be messed with!
