Hi Y'all,
A short while back, Christine of On Kiss Creations blog asked some creative and inspiring women if they would like to participate in a loose kind of blog hop, I was one of those women. Instead of everyone posting on the same day, we would post as we got our projects done, with an end of November deadline. As you can see I did not meet that deadline, but Christine is a very polite and understanding person and allowed me and Erin a little more time. She sent each of us a package containing vintage wooden spools like you see on the above badge (badge compliments of Hope's wonderful photography and Janet's tweaking...thanks ladies~it looks great!) and a few more goodies, that we could use or not, but the spools must be used. Christine found the spools while antiquing in New Jersey.
Here is what I received from Christine...
In my design I used the large spool, the matte finished gray beads, the 1.5 mm cube beads, the blue iris and hematite size 11 delicas, and the Labradorite bead.
I would like to dedicate this blog post to my Great Grandma Emma Prosser, Grandma Francis Prosser, Grandma Veronica Neuhalfen, and my Mom Alice Neuhalfen Prosser. All of these women have influenced me in one way or an other in my love of creating.
As far back as I can remember my Mom has always sewed. My first memories of this is when I was 5 years old sitting under the table with my dolls and picking up my Mom's material scraps as she cut out patterns. I would take the larger pieces wrap them around the doll's body and take a thin strip of material and use it as a belt. At that age I still could not tie a bow, but I could tie a knot.When I got a little older my Mom would let me use scissors and a darning needle with embroidery floss. She showed me how to do a baste stitch and that was all it took I was hooked, and a crafter was born!
My Mom's Mom, Grandma Veronica Neuhalfen, was a quilter. I can remember sitting around a quilt wrack in the living room in her farm house, as a little girl watching about five or six women with little tiny needles, talking and rocking their hands up and down while they made tiny little stitches. When I got into my young adult years I started making quilts, although I never got the hang of quilting by hand, I used the sewing machine.
When my Dad did his tour in Veit Nam we lived in his home town in Pennsylvania. My Great Grandma Emma Prosser live up on the side of Hickory Mountain and I would go to her house all the time and sit on a little stool by her old Singer sewing machine. She would sew and tell me stories of her life when she was a young girl. I was so amazed with her sewing machine, because it was not like my Mom's Singer, her's was an old trundle machine. She also did not use patterns she would take my measurements and make me little outfits. I am so grateful that I had that time with my Great Grandma Emma. When my Dad returned from Veit Nam we went to Germany and while we were in Germany my Great Grandma Emma passed away.
After returning from Germany and moving to Alabama back in 1970, I would go spend the summers in Pennsylvania with Grandma Francis Prosser, my Dad's Mom. My Grandma Prosser crocheted and knitted. I would love to watch her hands move so fast and the item she was making just appear in front of your eyes, it was so fascinating to me. I would pull here pattern books out and look at them. In one of the books there was a camisole that I fell in love with and I just had to have it, so I asked her if she would make it for me and she said well I could but I'm not, you are going to make it. I was wide eyed and told her that I could not do it, she said sure you can I will teach you. So my very first crocheting project was done with a size 00 needle and thread. Oh and no I never finished the project, but I never forgot the lessons I was taught, and went on to making many many afghans.
I am so thankful to have and had all these amazing and talented women in my life to teach and nourish my natural abilities.
Here is what I created with one of the spools that Christine sent...
I have been wanting to etch metal, so I finely tried it. I found a stamp that said smile. Why smile, well because when I think back on those memories from above, they make me smile. I measured the spool and cut a piece of copper sheeting to fit around the spool. Stamped it with StazOn ink using the smile stamp and a stamp with little hearts around the edges of the copper.
I took the etched piece of copper over to my friend Morning's shop and used the torch to anneal the copper, so it would bend around the spool then I punched holes in the back and riveted the ends together. I wanted the word smile to stand out so I used some blue patina ink to highlight the word and hearts. I used the Zig Zag stitch in the tassel to represent the Zig Zag stitching from my Mom's sewing machine the best stitch to use with knit material.
The spool is hanging on my very first Viking knit it is not that good, but I thought it tied into my theme of this necklace. I also used yarn to do a Kumihimo braid to represent the yarn crafts that my Grandma Prosser did.
Well there you have it my creation "Smile".
Thank you Christine for your generosity and friendship. This challenge really pushed me to do something different then what I would normally do.
Here is the list of women that have already posted.
Erin is the last to post and will be doing so soon.
Happy beading Y'all,
Therese
