It was a full to overflowing Shoebox today that included contributions from a 5-year-old little girl to an 88-year-old woman!
Somewhere in between age 5 and 88 is B.J. Phillips of Edmond, Ore., who wrote that what she uses when doing any project that calls for lots of tiny beads are the paint edgers from the hardware store (figure A). The little pads do a great job of holding the beads instead of letting them slip and slide all over the place and they can easily be picked up on your needle. A terrific idea! B.J. thinks so too because she also wrote, "When you tell beaders about this, they will pay me homage and I will accept it gracefully." I have the feeling that B.J. is right about beaders paying her homage.
Also with a suggestion for beaders was the letter from Mary Korcsog of Granite City, Ill. Mary uses the wrong side of the little covers that hold light bulbs for holding her beads. These are corrugated and the beads fit right into the little valleys between the ridges. Mary cuts up the carton and places the piece she is using in a foam tray (figure B). Not a penny spent and it works just fine.
There was also a lovely letter from Kathryn Hampton of Belton, S.C., in which Kathryn stated that she was going through a bunch of stuff trying to decide . . . keep or toss? It was while going through a stack of saved greeting cards that she remembered a box of four-inch tiles that someone had given her some time back. It was then that she had the idea to cut up the cards and glue the cutout images to the top of the tiles (figure C). So she did. But then she decided that they needed a border so she ran narrow ribbon around the outside and backed them with white felt. They turned out so well that she began giving them to friends and even took a picture of a bunch of them to send to me. I requested a couple of the actual tiles to show and was thrilled when I got them to see that they were even more attractive in real life. This was a perfect example of a very simple idea and project given a real touch of class because of the attention to detail and the very neat way everything was done . . . including the cutting, which was excellent. It is all the more admirable when you know that Kathryn is 88 years old and gets together to craft with her 91-year-old friend, Ruby Willingham.
Next out of the Shoebox was the contribution from 5-year-old Drisana Mosaphir of New York. Actually, Drisana didn't do the writing . . . her mother did . . . but Drisana drew the chalk picture that she sent because she likes the show (figure D).
Another talented young lady is 8-year-old Elizabeth Barker (9 years old by now) who lives in Manistee, Mich. At a personal appearance I was making in Manistee, Elizabeth gave me a polymer clay doll she had made following an appearance by a guest on the show (figure E). From the look of the figure Elizabeth made, I am very sure that the guest was clay artist Maureen Carlson. Elizabeth's mother told me she had never tried anything like that before. I showed it to be an inspiration to adults who are often too timid to try!
And yet another contribution from a youngster . . . this time a photograph of a 10-inch long polymer clay fish (figure F) that Anna Marie Klapp of Brunswick, Ga., made for one of her brother's friends. Anna said that working with polymer clay was her favorite craft and went on to say, "I take pride in what I make and I find it a wonderful way of expressing your feelings through an art."
Quite a Shoebox today!
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