They work!

While waiting for my first clay oil lamp to dry, I made a second one.

I wasn't happy with it. 

The goal is for even very small children to be able to make one, with as little muss and fuss as possible.  With that in mind, I took the clay from the second lamp and, using only half of the amount, made an even simpler and smaller version than the first.

That one, I'm very happy with.

Today, I tested them both out.

They work just fine!

The fuel is olive oil, which is what these lamps would have burned as fuel thousands of years ago.  For a wick, I used a strand of cotton yarn.

I'm not sure how much oil either of them holds; at most, a quarter cup between the two of them, possibly less.

The lamp on the right (the first one I made) has a much shallower usable reservoir; the opening to hold the wick is rather low, so any more would leak through there.  The one on the left has more of an incline for the wick, so more oil can be added.

The shallow lamp burned for about 2 hours before using up the oil.  The deeper one lasted perhaps half an hour longer.

When I have the time to spend on the computer, I will post a how-to on my Squidoo pages.  I'll post a link to there when that's done.

I think these will work rather well for VBS!

In the works: clay oil lamp

I've volunteered to work the crafting station of our church's Vacation Bible School this summer.  We're in the early planning stages.

One of the things we've decided to do is *not* buy the craft kits from the US.  Instead, we'll be coming up with themed crafts of our own.

The challenge?  Registration is just started, and the age range for registrants is 5-12.  That's a HUGE difference in abilities and interest!

So I've been trying to brainstorm various craft ideas that can be as simple or as complex as the abilities of the crafter, that is also thematic.  Time is limited, as groups will be coming through the stations on a rotation (I've never done one of these before, so I have no idea what it's really like; just how it's planned).  Things have to be quick, relatively easy, not very messy, and if they require drying time, won't take up much space.

Also, the themes are related to water and the sea (Jesus walking on water, calming the storm, instructing the fishermen to throw their nets one more time, etc.).

I've decided to test out an idea.  Air dry clay oil lamps, shaped like fish.  I've picked up some terra cotta modeling clay and some light vinyl - the sheet can be cut into sections for each individual quite easily.  I found using the small sheet also made it easier to move my clay shape around as needed.

I deliberately kept things simple, without attempting to go into too much detail, nor to attempt any sort of "perfection."  I wanted to see if this was something a 5 yr old could do.

This is what I've got so far, after drying over night.  The clay needs 24 hours to dry, which could be an issue, but after about a third of the time, it was dry enough that I could remove it from the sheet without breaking anything, yet still soft enough that I could smooth out a few rough spots I couldn't reach while it was still fully damp.

The tail is meant to double as a handle.  The body will hold olive oil.  The wick holder was shaped using a pencil, which was also used to mark designs on the sides and tail.

Including time to knead the clay (which would be done in advance, I think, so wouldn't be part of the crafting time), it took me less than half an hour to make this.  Now that I have an idea of what I'm doing and no longer have to pause to get things I didn't think of ahead of time, I think I could probably make one in about 10 minutes.


After it's completely dry, I will test light it.  I need to make sure the wick is held properly.

Or, someone could "cheat" and just put a tea light inside the bowl, instead.

I will likely make at least one more before our first planning meeting on Friday.

What do you think?  Older kids would easily go all out with this, if they wanted.  I think the shape is basic enough that younger children can manage it, but it's been a long time since I've done crafts with children so young.  I don't even know if we'll get kids that young!

Is there anyone who has done camp crafts that can give me some feedback and suggestions?

Quick and Easy Garland

Here's a garland I made up using the new Martha Stewart yarn, Glitter Eyelash.

When I first saw the new line of Martha Stewart yarns, I have to admit I had low expectations for the eyelash yarn.  That's because I have low expectation for eyelash yarn in general.  I find them a major pain to work with, and heaven help you if you make a mistake and need to undo it!

I was impressed with this yarn, however.  First off, there's a nice range of colours with marvelous sparkle to them.  Then I actually picked up a ball.  I had expected it to be scratchy from the glitter strands, but it was surprisingly soft.  I was impressed.

So when I decided to make a last minute decoration for the staff decorated tree at the Michaels I teach at, I picked up a couple of balls in Blue Topaz.  I decided to make a garland similar to one I have made before, using glow in the dark yarn. 

Once actually working with the yarn, I was again impressed.  It was smooth to work with and there was no tangling of any kind.  Very nice.  

For the garland pictured below, I used a 5.00mm hook and some white yarn I had on hand (Loops and Threads Impeccable) along with the Glitter Eyelash.

To start, make a chain to the desired length.  I never measured the final length for this, but I'm guessing it was about 13-15 feet long.

To make a gentle spiral, two stitches are worked into each chain in the foundation.

Start by making a loop by working a sc into the 6th chain from the hook, or whatever number of chains for the size of loop you want. Work 1 hdc in the next ch.

Place a stitch marker at the opposite end of the foundation chain, 7 ch from the end or the number of ch in your loop plus 2.

Work 2 dc into each ch to the marker.  Work 1 hdc into the ch the marker is in.  Create a loop by working a sc into the next ch and the last chain together.

Fasten off yarn.

Join with Glitter Eyelash into the hdc stitch at either end of the garland.  Work 1 sc into each stitch to the hdc at the opposite end.

Fasten off yarn.





When I first started this, I had intended to make a denser glitter row by working 1 ch in between each sc.  It was looking great, but used far more yarn than I had.  Unfortunately, I had already worked about 1 3/4 balls of Glitter Eyelash before I realized there was no way I had enough to finish the entire garland.  I would have needed almost 4 balls to finish it that way (which, by the way, I recommend as a variation.  Just make sure you have lots of Glitter Eyelash).

I had to do the one thing I dreaded most with an eyelash yarn.  I would need to undo nearly two balls worth. 

Much to my surprise, it came undone as smoothly as any basic yarn!  There were no tangles at all, no catches, no twisting.  It was beautiful! 



To store the garland, wrap it around a core of some kind.  I used the thick cardboard tube from a package of extra wide aluminum foil.  There's a couple of spots of sticky glue where the foil was attached to the tube, which I covered with tape.  Just hook the loop around one end of the tube, then wind the garland around it.  To fit this garland onto the tube, I had to jam it together pretty tightly.  The tube also makes it easier to place the garland on your tree.  Just hook a loop onto your tree, then unwind it as you go.

This garland took me about 3 hours to do, including the time it took to rip all the eyelash yarn and work it back up again.  This can easily be worked up in a single evening.

As for the Glitter Eyelash yarn from Martha Stewart, I definitely recommend it!  It's got great colours, lovely sparkle, a soft texture, is lovely to work with, and is even a delight to undo if you make a mistake.  Fantastic stuff!

Blast from the Past - mini felt stockings

Christmas again - this time, 1999. Less than 2 months before, we'd moved back to BC, after being away for several years. We had two children now, and were renting a house in Richmond. This move was supposed to be temporary - my husband had signed on for a 6 month contract - so we didn't bring much with us. My husband had driven out a couple of weeks ahead of us, with the car loaded down with everything we could fit. The girls and I flew out later with a few suitcases. That was all we ever brought with us.

We ended up there for almost 2 years. His contract kept getting extended by 6 months, so we never did ship anything out after us.

Our first Christmas in Richmond found us with no tree and no decorations. We bought a small artificial tree (I know this is sacrilage for some, but we never use live trees) and placed it on the top of a large storage bin for extra height, with the bin covered by a white table cloth. That came in handy, as the empty bin was used to hide the gifts until Christmas Day.


These are the only decorations I've made that included the year on them. I figured the turn of the century was a good time to do it. ;-) I had very little in the way of supplies. A few pieces of felt and a cardboard template. Some embroidery thread, ric rac and glow in the dark pain in a tube.

These have a plain back to them, and can be used to hold small items, if we want. I've never bothered, though.

That year, our tiny tree had these and some fancied up clam shells from a little basket of shells my daughter's had. When the tree came down, the shells were de-fancified and went back to the girls. Throw in a cheap dollar store garland and string of lights, and we had a pretty decent little tree that year. *L*

Easy crochet Christmas garland

Before I started on the sachets I plan to make for this year's decorations, I quickly made up this garland. The sachets can be added at any time, but the garland needs to go on before the other decorations, so I wanted to get it finished first. To be able to see the larger photos, go here.

First, the materials.

I chose white glow-in-the-dark yarn that came out for Halloween. I even paid full price for it. ;-) I'd originally intended to use it to make this year's decorations. When I changed my mind about those, I still wanted to find a way to incorporate it into the tree, so I came up with the garland idea.

The red... I have no idea what it is. I found it in the yarn bin at the Reuse Centre. It's a 4 ply yarn but the strands aren't twisted together at all, but just lie side by side.

I also used a 00/3.50mm hook instead of the 5.00mm hook recommended on the yarn's label, as I wanted the stitches to be a fair bit tighter.



The garland itself is really simple, and can be easily modified in many ways. For mine, I wanted something with a gentle spiral to it, so I made a length of chain (15 ft long), then did a row of sc down the length of it. I then went back down the length of it again, this time working pairs of dc in each sc in the previous row. Had I wanted a tighter spiral, which I briefly considered, I would have skipped the sc row completely, and done 3 dc in each chain.

Unfortunately, none of the photos I took of that part of the process came out. My memory card was corrupted, but I didn't realize I didn't have the photos I thought I took until I tried uploading them - after I'd already finished the garland. Oops.

As I was making it, however, I discovered a problem. I was getting about half way through the dc row when I realized that, for a 15 ft garland, I needed 3 balls of the glow-in-the-dark yarn. I only had two. I knew the Michaels store I got them from was out of stock in white, so I started making phone calls. I eventually discovered that there wasn't a ball of this yarn in white left in the city - at least no where that I could find. In fact, it looked like the only place that ever carried it at all was Michaels.

So I had a choice. I could undo the whole thing to the foundation chain, then undo that by about 4 feet, which is about how much I was short when I ran out of the yarn, then start over. Or, I could dig around and see if I had a similar yarn in white. I figured that a shorter garland wouldn't drape the way I wanted on the tree, so I went with the alternative. I did have a yarn I could use, though it was just a little bit thinner than the glow yarn. To maintain the spiral I wanted, I did two pairs of dc, followed by group of 3 dc, for the rest of the garland. It worked out rather well. As I was doing the red edging, I literally could not tell when I passed the plain white yarn and started working on the area with the glow yarn.

The red edging was done with just 1 sc in each dc in the row previous. If I'd wanted a frillier edge, I could've done 2 sc in each, or I could've added beads, picots, etc. to fancy up the edge. At the last minute, I did add some gold filament thread together with the red, which was something I happened to have on hand, just for a bit of sparkle. Unfortunately, photos with the filament spool were among those that didn't work, and I emptied the spool while doing this, so I couldn't go back and take another photo.




It was the wee hours of the morning when I finished this, so I stuck it into our undecorated tree (we're still training the kitten to stay away from it, which seems to be working quite well). I wanted the girls to find it in the morning. When my elder daughter saw it, it reminded her of a polychaete worm. She thought it would be funny to add buttons for eyes and a ribbon for a tongue (though as far as I know, polychaetes don't have tongues, and I'm not sure what they have for eyes).

I thought it was a hoot.





















Here's what the garland looks like stretched out. I had to shape it a bit to get it to spiral instead of ripple. For storage, I'll wrap it around something - the tube from wrapping paper looks to be the right size for that.



















Here's all 15 feet, set up in my light box. I left it there to charge for a bit (and you can see the sparkle of the gold filament thread in the red fairly well, too).












And here it is with the lights out. You can sort of see on the left hand side where the regular yarn is, and only the foundation chain and sc row are glowing.

I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I don't know that using the glow yarn will mean very much, since the tree will be lit up when it's dark, anyways, but we'll see. :-D I think it was a rather successful experiment, even with the yarn change.

The glow yarn was a bit of a pain to work with - the strands had a tendency to untwist and catch on the hook. Surprisingly, the red yarn, which wasn't twisted at all, plus at the gold filament thread added in, didn't catch at all. It was really great to work with.