Wednesday 18 July 2007

Exterminate! Exterminate!


No, this is not an anorexic Dalek, it's a tassel-maker!

I had already made the tassels for the Byzantium hat.
I then came across a piece of turned wood. It was the remnants of a director's chair, broken up for disposal once it was too broken to repair. (believe me, it has to be very broken round here to not be useable!). We are heavily into recycling.

I thought of a way to use it. I described my idea to Mr M, my DH, who was totally bewildered, tassels-making never being one of his life-skills.

A few diagrams later, and some mysterious time in the garage (aka, bloke's shed - it's never had a car in it!) we had my tassel-maker. It has several holes down the length, so different size tassels can be made. The "arms" are bamboo chopsticks cut down. They are tapered, which means they can be set firmly into the holes, but later pulled out for a different size.

The base is version #2 - the first version was too small, and I didn't want the tassel-maker tipping over when I used it. It stands 27cm (11 inches) from tip to bottom of the base.

I guess it could also be used to make pom-poms. My first effort at one of those was a pretty weird oval shape. I figure I must have put the centre draw-string in the wrong spot. I'll have another go at it some other day.

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