We're on the verge of my favorite time of the year, when the nights are long and the days are short. And in just a few more weeks -- Christmas! I mention this because I'm starting to crochet coasters for my son's Christmas gifts to his teachers. Better start early. These coasters may not be much but if I were to receive them, I'd value them more than the store bought presents because I know, they were made with extraordinary skills, patience and love. Of course, I don't mind receiving store bought gifts. It's actually the thought that counts. But handmade ones are truly special.
These coasters that I'm making are actually based on patterns of doilies in very old magazines and books that my mother-in-law gave me. They are so old that they are turning brittle so I'm very careful handling them. Maybe I'll feature these old magazines and books ( published in the 50's) next time.
I've made "hair doilies" based on these old magazine patterns. If you are one of those who already took a peek at my Flickr photostream then you've already heard about this. I don't know if there is such a term as hair doily. I coined it myself. I made a small doily, then stuck it in my hair with a hair stick and voila! -- a hair doily. My mother and I made a batch of these to sell in the "tiangge" (local fair) more than two years ago. These are the leftovers.
Hair doilies with beaded centers. The original pattern used only one color for the whole thing. I designed it to be monochromatic too but in different shades to add depth and texture.
Now for the stick, I scoured Divisoria for this. The usual hairsticks that I found were too long for the doilies. I gave up and bought a few ones that I liked with the intention of cutting them to just the right size. Here is the sticks's original size. You can see it with the doily on my baby's hair.
It looks so awkward on Baby Raya but, oh, so cute! See that yummy looking nape? It's good for kissing, take my word for it! But to get to the business at hand, how to cut that hair stick?
The stick was easy enough to cut with a wire cutter (stick is hollow). Then I took out the screw inserted in the bead, stuck it inside the cut hollow stick and pinched the stick with the wire cutter. The pinch held the screw securely in place. Here is the result.
Sorry for the blur. Haven't figured out yet closeup shots with my camera when I took this.
And here's the shot with the doily and stick together.
I mentioned on my first blog that the son is always bringing my camera to school. One of her girl classmates saw this photo in the camera. She was interested in this particular doily and was asking how much I would sell it. Well, as always, I was flattered that someone would want to buy one of my crafts. It so happened that another classmate wanted to buy the brown one. So I priced them. (Student and friend price, mind you.) Then I packaged them in organza pouches. Quite a bonus really, these pretty pouches. I so love packaging things from gifts to merchandise. It gives the item being packaged a unique and polished look about it. I then said goodbye to them and the doilies and the sticks and sent them off to their new owners.
Doilies packaged and all set to go. I packaged the blue doily in light blue organza pouch with a faux pearl at each end of the drawstring.
For the brown one, I used a maroon pouch.
The following is a photo of the Hair Doily with Beaded Hair Stick in action.
Hair doily worn by my niece Danna, who patiently posed and waited for me to finish my amateur attempts at being a photographer. She's turning 9 next month.
And here's a closeup shot.
That's all for now friends. Thanks for dropping by. Hope you can do so again on my next post. You can also check me out on Flickr:
Till then . . . :~)
