Hare Bells

Hi all,
Sorry it's been a while since I made a post but our house move is now a nightmare. Everything is a disaster because the solicitors and estate agents are a bunch of, well I won't say what until we are in our new abode. That is if it ever happens. We have had two moving dates that never happened and we are now waiting for the third. The phone line and Internet have been cancelled and our mail is being redirected. We still do not have a moving date and our solicitor can't even be bothered to ring us back.

Ah well, it'll soon be Christmas and if I'm lucky I'll get a turkey sandwich.

Needless to say, I haven't been doing much in the way of craft work. I did managed to do a small trinket pot pictured below with a small flower inlay.

I didn't make the box, I bought it. However, I am responsible for the hare bells on the lid. I drew the design onto a piece of paper and stuck it onto the lid with some temporary adhesive glue. I then used my scroll saw to cut out the pattern with a number 3 blade.

A lot of care was required on the pattern to make sure I didn't ruin it. Care was also required because when working on the lid the blade was very close to my fingers. One slip and my violin playing days would be over.

Once the pattern was cut out, I cut a small disc of plywood which I struck on the underside of the lid. The purpose of this was to stop the clay inlay from going straight through.

For the inlay, I mixed some blue and yellow clay for the stems and leaves and used two tones of blue for the actual hare bell flowers. The most tedious part was filling the design with the clay. I used the blade of a craft knife to make sure each part of the design was fully filled. Once that was done, I cooked the lid in the oven then gave it a coat of sanding sealer followed by a couple of coats of varnish.

This is only the third inlay I have done and I'm very happy with the results. I am desperate to get this house move out of the way so that I can combine scroll saw work, inlaying and pyrography in an artistic way. My head is full of ideas but I have decommissioned my scroll saw and other stuff is packed away in boxes.

Perhaps the new year will a change of circumstance and I can get stuck in again.