Saturday crafts with the girls

I'm sorry if people are, by now at least, feeling as if I'm spamming their rss-feeds. Feel free to jump ahead, if you're so inclined.

This Saturday was spent with Ida and Mimi, first having a super lovely Austrian-inspired dinner of bratwurst/potato salad and wine, then doing crafts until 3:30 in the morning. Tiring, yes, but oh so satisfying. There's much you can do around a dinner table.

While Ida was kept busy writing her BA-thesis and cursing her computer*, Mimi was sewing on her Star Wars hat and I was just fooling around with making jewelry. I told them about the button challenge, and later on Ida and I came up with some really cool designs. Here's some pictures of what we made during the evening.

* I later helped her, by pointing out that she could increase the virtual memory amount for Windows. Suddenly, the computer started working like a charm :) I was so glad to be able to help!

Green wooden necklace with Chinese button knots.
Charm bracelet.
Thin wooden earrings.
Ida's button ring and earrings.
Red button ring.
Since Ida both helped and created some button-inspired jewelry, I'm gonna show you some more pictures of the design process itself. Ida created, and I took the pictures :)
For this, you'll  need
  • one button with a loop on the back
  • ~50 cm of satin cord
  • a cigarette lighter
Choose one button with a small loop on the back.
Taking your satin cord, loop it through twice.
The loops should be a little wider than
the finger you want the ring to fit on.
Notice that you now have cords on both sides of the button,
and that they should be equally long.
Twist one of the cords to the other side.
Using the two stationary loops as a base,
start making basket weave macramé with the two cords.
Do notice that this is basket stitch with only 2 cords, not 4!
Once you've reached the end of the loop,
secure the cords however you want and the use the lighter
to melt the ends. Satin melts like plastic, and this will keep
the ends from fraying and coming loose.
Tadaa!
And you're done :)

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