Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Crafty

I'm crafty, I think, but not in the positive sense. I am clever at achieving one's aims by indirect or deceitful methods and probably fall more on the "indirect" rather than "deceitful," but I'm not crafty in the sense that I have an ability or even desire to make things -- you know -- Do It Yourself kind of stuff. But the other day, I made this from an old picture frame to hang up the nearly obscene number of earrings (none of which I'd made or beaded or strung in a crafty way) that no longer fit in my jewelry box.




What do you think?


Making that gave me only a small bit of satisfaction, but it did pique my interest in my history of non-crafting, and I remembered that I actually did enjoy the occasional craft as a child. In fact, I was a bit obsessed with craft kits and went through a period in the mid to late seventies where I actually ordered quite a few craft kits from the backs of magazines. Do you remember doing that? I think I even joined a Frito Lay Fan Club at one point, cut out the order form from the back of a cardboard pack of snack size Fritos, filled it out with name and address, enclosed $1.50 in cash, put it in an envelope and sent it. I ordered Sea Monkeys that way, too, and then later joined those Columbia Record Clubs and Paperback Literary Guild. I think I was more in to the neatness of ordering something and then waiting for it to come in the mail, rather than the actual craft and work it took to put together, but I digress.


Here's a craft kit for a general store that I did when I was a kid, that now sits on top of Oliver's dresser. He shares my love of the miniature and often remarks that he wishes he could find a similar craft. This one is a bit shabby, but I'm fond of it. It reminds me, too, of a remark I made to my friend Johanna the other day -- that since I don't have the money to fix my house up an renovate it, I should perhaps find an old dollhouse and outfit it. 






Here's a bizarre little picture that I made with some kind of beads and the ugliest cardboard that you can imagine. I have it on the hallway book-shelf and find it oddly prescient that it's of a surfer. Reader, many of you know that I am a tad obsessed with surfers and have stated that if there were multiple lives, I would like to come back as a surfer, wear a bikini, work in a surf shack, smoke a lot of pot and have no cares to speak of.



8 comments:

  1. Back in the day, my cousin and I were going to make a fortune crafting dogwood blossom earrings out of tiny sea shells. We didn't factor in the problem of getting those shells since we lived hundreds of miles from an actual sea!! I'd call myself a C- crafter. I can do some things if I have a real crafter to hold my hand. Truth be told, I'd rather read a book than create most crafts.

    Best,
    Bonnie

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  2. I have gone through periods of very, very odd crafting. Like, okay, this is so weird it's almost cool: I used to buy white plastic Madonna nightlights at the Dollar Store and then I would meticulously paint them with FINGER NAIL POLISH (they come in such great colors, you know) and glue glitter and beads and tiny silk flowers on them. I was obsessed. This was when I was an adult. With four children. Okay. Not that long ago.
    I also used to make afgans by crocheting. I used to make a lot of my clothes and the kids' clothes.
    Now I just blog.
    I like your earring thingee. I keep a lot of my jewelry on a picture frame too but I just drove nails all along the edges to hang them and necklaces from.

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  3. I really like your earring thingee - it will be almost fun to put them back where they need to go - and having boys, you don't need to worry about daughters coming in and raiding your handiwork

    I wish I had stuff I made when I was a kid - there is something very folk art about it - like tramp art from the 20's.

    Bust mostly I enjoyed looking at the book titles - you are one smart chick

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  4. LOL... have you discovered Pinterest? Its addicting and that earring holder reminds me of something I saw on there :)

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  5. I'm mostly impressed that you STILL HAVE these relics of your past craftiness. I did some crafty things as a kid, but I didn't keep any of it. (My mom probably still has a few items lying around her house.) In more recent years I've done wheel-throwing, so I have some handmade pottery, but that's about it. (And I wasn't very good at it.)

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  6. I go on craft binges like the ones you have, but I generally have more ideas than patience (or actual time), so many of them get started but never finished.

    My favorite artistic endeavor is coloring mandalas. I'm not terribly creative with colors (I tend to be too anal retentive and want to make a specific pattern), but it's easy to pull out and start and I don't feel guilty if I don't finish.

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  7. I like some crafts, and I used to tend to rotate them - knitting, sewing, beading, scrapbooking, making soap & candles - but since I started writing and making quilts/blankets, I do far less of any other kind of crafting.
    Your earring display is cool, and that store diorama? Awesome.

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  8. OMG....tears of laughter remembering Columbia records! I on the other hand, collected Bazooka Joe bubble gum comics, remember those? With the fortunes on the bottom? I think you needed to collect 100 or so to send in and win a cheap prize.

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