A few friends and I got together today to make art. One of the gals brought all the makings for these spun cotton ornaments. These ornaments were very prevalent in Victorian times, but few have survived as they were given to children to play with. They were made with spun cotton or cotton batting and paper "scraps" (faces) which were popular at that time.
These are the two I made.
We found a 2002 video from Martha Stewart with simple instructions, so we set to work making paper patterns until we got them sized correctly. The body is heavy chipboard and the arms and legs are pipe cleaners covered with strips of black flannel, glued to the body. We sprayed the natural cotton batting with walnut ink to make it look aged and distressed, then wrapped the coat around the chipboard, little rectangles around the arms, and added a cape and a hood. We found some antique Santa faces online and resized them to fit. I used a thick baker's twine for the belt on one Santa and glued a tiny tree to his hand. The other has a tinsel belt. I wiped a light coating of glue on the hood and top of the cape and sprinkled with Distress Glitter to simulate snow. (These guys are about 5" tall.)
I still need to thread a cord through the top of the hoods for hangers. So, are we really late for this past Christmas or very early for next Christmas? It was actually very relaxing to work on a Christmas project "out of season" without the usual stress!
No comments:
Post a Comment