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Crafts
Asylum
Wildcrafting
Christmas
Page 6
Susan Hawkins
I know you are tired of my birds ! But here is another,
nestled with some yarrow blooms on a sideways Pinion Pine Cone.
Any of the short fat pinecones look best on their side.
This one has touches of copper here and there.
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This years Potpourri Lamp
I make all my own potpourris and thisy Christmas one has
been around for about 30 years. I pick out a new jar to use every year
and different lamp chimneys. I really love this chimney the most so use
it often. In my new house I will make many lamps for it.
This jar is one of those stoppered ones from the kitchen, if you
use this type of lampchimney, just pick a jar that fits loosely since you
have to put the cord out between the jar and chimney. If you use a tall
type of chimney, you will need to have the chimney bigger than the jar
opening so it will have the space you need.
No fire hazard as I feel the lights before I put them in, pick a
string of 20 to 50 depending on what size lamp you make, feel the bulbs
after they have been burning about 5 minutes, if they are only warm on
your finger they are fine in the lamp.
But the new LED lamps won't work except to look pretty, they
don't put out any heat to dispurse the wonderful scent. By the way the
type of light that is a little round frosted ball will look even better.
I have some of those tucked back to make new lamps with.
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Apple Sauce
Most of you have made cinnamon & applesauce Ornaments.
If you haven't you should! Basic recipe, 2 cups of quality applesauce,
I use Motts and 2 cups of cinnamon. There is some disagreement as to whether
you need to add a couple of tablespoons of white glue or not. You can use
homemade applesauce but it must have a lot of pectin in it, you can also
make it from crab apples, they have a lot of pectin. The pectin is the
glue that holds the cinnamon together and makes it become hard as wood.
They smell wonderful. I cut the shapes out and dry them on newspaper
or parchment paper in baskets hung from the ceiling, you can speed it up
by putting them in a low low oven for about 5 or 6 hrs. I like the drawnout
drying. So so wonderful.
You can make them anyshape and can use them as a clay, most of my
St. Nicholas dolls have had cinnamon- applesauce heads, you can paint
them after drying with acrylics.
I did these roughly, just rolled them out and cut them out without
smoothing because I was in a hurry and didn't want them to be perfect anyway.
You can smooth and shape your cutouts any way you want, if your mix is
too dry and won't smooth, mix in some more applesauce and re-roll.
I made a lot of wreath shaped ones:
This cinnamon horse is decorated with torn off parts from
some fiber from a palm tree I met in New Mexico at a rest stop. They
are great for crafting. You could use grasses for the mane and tail or
even dried apple peels. The white dots are
"tapioca pearls", I can no longer eat them since I became a diabetic and
put them to good use on my ornaments these days. I make sure and seal them
with acrylic so they won't attract water and swell later. the backside
of the horse is unsealed.
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