ToolGirl

How to make chair seats from old neck ties

Reupholstering with neckties

Once our Christmas house guests finally left (after I asked them to rip up the laundry room floor and find the radon leak) I drove to Boston, where I’m now tormenting relatives with the fine art of being a house guest. So far I’ve overslept, overeaten and over expressed myself as often as possible.

Are they enjoying my company? So much so that they gave me some stuff to do, like finding the freon leak in the freezer. And then they all went out. It’s a pacing thing. They can’t have too much fun all at once.

And speaking of fun, ever wondered what to do with all of those old neckties that your male relatives never wear anymore? My sister had an idea. She turned them into sittable art. Weaving ties into chair seats is way easier than, say, finding the freon leak in a freezer, plus there are no painful accidents with your tongue.

Tie Basket Photos

These additional photos from Gillian may help you tie basket.....

             Tie pinned together prior to sewing                  

Tie sewn together to form a tube

How to Make Baskets and Hats from Recycled Neck Ties

To Tie For!
Silk ties make gorgeous art

They say that talent is hitting a target that no one else can hit, whereas genius is hitting a target that no one else can see.  My sister Gillian Danner falls into the latter category. 

  She has a habit of coming up with designs that nobody else would think of, plus they actually look good.  I’ve been trying to figure out how she succeeds in creating art, where I produce stuff that the church auxiliary ladies quietly omit from rummage sales.

One of Gill’s techniques is that she repurposes objects to serve functions they were never intended for.  For example, she’ll turn magazine photos into tiny hand-rolled lacquered beads, or convert antique farm implements into toilet paper dispensers or sculpt gentleman’s ties into silk baskets.

How to Engrave Designs on Glass

(this is a glass that my friend Sue made using a Dremel for the first time!)

A Blast from the Glass

DIY Engraving

My coordination has been a bit off since, oh, puberty. Even now that I've entered my supposedly mature years I’m still a spiller and a breaker. When I go to friends’ places for dinner, I request plastic drinking vessels. People resisted this at first, thinking I was exaggerating. But they’ve learned. I have UASS. (Upper Adulthood Spiller Syndrome).

My own glassware is a ragged collection of mismatched pieces; the type of assortment one usually reserves for the cottage. Only I don’t have a cottage. (We spillers live the cottage lifestyle with or without beachfront real estate, because we never have full sets of anything.) 

But I’ve discovered a great method of bringing uniformity to my snifters, goblets and highballs: Glass engraving, a totally enjoyable pastime. You don’t need to be particularly artistic, because if you’re not confident with freehand drawing, you can just trace paper patterns, photos, quotations, leaves, flowers, fabric or wallpaper through the glass.

Wood Turning

Lathe Bloomer
Going with the slow

I’m changing. Perhaps it’s the dawn of maturity. After many years of wanting to rush through everything, and I mean everything, I’ve started to realize that speed is overrated.

The faster you go, the less you notice, and you suddenly hit the realization that you may have missed sucking the marrow out of the bone of life (to use a disgusting medieval image of ill-mannered revelry). 

If you rush something, you don’t really experience it, and then you wonder why you can’t remember details about things you thought you cared about while you were doing them.

I’ll tell you why you can’t remember.  You weren’t really there at the time.  You were busy leaning into the future anticipating getting everything done.  And now that you’ve got so much done, how do you feel? (Pop quiz) 

How to get the look of a stone fireplace in one weekend!

BRAND NEW VIDEO - Mag ambushes a friend and does a complete makeover on her fireplace!  (This video features a sweeping cinematic score that Mag created with her GarageBand software!)

How to make easy sterling silver earrings

Hearts and Crafts

Do-It-Yourself Bling
One day, I lost an earring to the sucking vortex of the toilet.  After the shrieking stopped, I vowed to cheat the toilet gods forevermore.  I’d make my own earrings, so whenever I lost one I could replace it.  No more orphaned bijoux, no more toilet-centric anguish.   

I was further inspired by Ann Wylie-Toal, a designer and artist living in Flesherton Ontario (www.awtdesigns.com).  I visited her studio and in 7 minutes flat, she whipped up an amazingly complex pair of gold wire earrings for me. Ann has a 3-D aptitude to rival Leonardo da Vinci’s, but I didn’t realize this until I decided to make earrings for Christmas presents.

Find Furniture Plans Online

Wood That I Could!

It’s that time of year when meteorological anguish compels many Canadians to attempt woodworking projects.  Maybe you got some new tools for Christmas, or perhaps you’re just seized with the nesting urge, but I’m betting that in the past week you’ve thought of at least one home improvement project you’d like to accomplish.  And now your only question is, “Is there some relative I can foist it on?”

If you come up empty on that one, your next question is usually, “Well, how hard can it be?”

ReStore Salvage Building Materials

Salvage-Ho!

A heap o’ cheapo building supplies
Canadians are starting to feel the pinch of winter.  I know, because I’m getting letters from every province, from every age group.  People are starting to plan their spring renovations now. 

And just like old-timers can predict weather patterns by the foraging habits of rodents, I can predict that 2008 is going to be a big year for being handy. 

My correspondents seek sisterly advice about cottage renovations, basement remodels, kitchen upgrades and exterior touch-ups.  The home improvement bug is clearly out of the larvae stage and starting to think about reproducing.

For example: 

Dear Mag, 

I own an old park model trailer that I will be painting this year.  I want to replace the existing decorative shutters with wooden ones. Something very simple structurally but with a cut-out design (ie: trillium, bird etc.) in the centre of the shutter. Do you have any suggestions?       

Casket and coffin plans

For those of you who've been asking, and you know who you are, I finally found plans for building your own traditional casket for a pet or a person.