I Made a Drop Spindle

I wanted to use my drop spindle tomorrow at an SCA event and I couldn't find it. So I made one out of white Sculpey. Unfortunately my oven is possessed. I was supposed to bake it at 275 degrees for 15 minutes. So I set it modestly at 225. When I took the piece out 15 minutes later, it was very scorched. The oven thermometer read 350 degrees. I could have just lived with it like that. But I decided to glue decorative paper to the front and back with ModPodge. I made the shaft out of a poplar dowel. The hole in the disk shrank a bit as I expected so I enlarged it with a round file so the dowel would fit again. I dyed the dowel red and coated it with ModPodge as well. I needed a piece of wire to make the hook. I grabbed a large safety pin and cut the wire from that, using the super sharp end to push it into the dowel. Once it's all dry and put together I'll share a photo. I don't think it will be that durable since the Sculpey was old and a bit crumbly so I couldn't smooth it as well as I would have liked. But it will do for tomorrow and the project has potential. I'll just have to be careful not to drop it on anything hard. I am taking a straw mat with me tomorrow and I'll work over that in case the yarn breaks and the spindle goes flying like a top. So once again necessity is the mother of invention.

Ceramic Drop Spindle

Today I got to try out my new drop spindle whorl.  I had to sand down a pencil to make the spindle and then I pushed a wire into the eraser to make the hook.  I was afraid the spindle would be too heavy, but as you can see by the photos I got it to work just fine.  It's wobbly, and I don't know if that's the spindle or the hole in the whorl being a bit off center.  But it works and that's what matters. I think I've been a beginner for about 15 years now. My hands are tired, not from the spinning, but from the sanding.

Working on My Gourd Drum

This is my 700th post to this blog. Amazing. I guess I have more persistance than I thought.
Today I worked on my gourd drum. I had to level the top and the bottom and clean more gunk out of the insides. I still have a ways to go but my hands wore out before my work was finished. Tomorrow is another day. We're expecting a rainstorm, so I wanted to get as much outdoor work done as possible.

I also worked on more spinning with the drop spindle. I need to figure out what to use for bobbins so I can ply 2 strands together.

One of the sellers I know from the Etsy chatroom is 2 sales away from 5,000. Amazing. She sells hand painted yarns and stitch markers.

She said it gets easier after the first 100 sales. I'd sure like to find out if that's true. Ah well, it's almost midnight so I'm off to make my bed, if I can get Rocky the cat to find a new sleeping spot.