Last night, Sheena & I had 26 lovely and creative women join us for Craft Cafe! That is a record. We have had close to 20 before, but this was just amazing! 21 people preregistered, something we have been having trouble getting people to do. I am not sure if it is because the weather is getting colder or if it is because the back to school fall rush is over, but I hope it was because of the craft. I have a tea cup fetish, and I love to come up with ways to use them for things other than just drinking tea, partially because I want to collect more of them. When my friends held a blessingway days before I had my second daughter, I made them all soy tea cup candles, you can see the tutorial here. She is 2 1/2 now, and I haven't done much with my tea cups since. I was in the mood, so with Craft Cafe in mind, I designed what I like to call a little tea cup garden. As a master gardener, in what seems like a previous life, I have done my fair share of using non traditional containers as plant pots. From crockery to work boots to tea cups, I have used them all as planters. The thing that was different about my tea cup planter this time is that I incorporated my current obsession of collaging spoons. When I make a wall hanging out of a spoon, I usually use a large real silver spoon. For this project, I wanted to continue with the theme of recycling vintage elements, and to put to use all the vintage souvenir spoons that I find at the thrift store. In some cases I like the spoons as is, but for the most part they beg to be reworked. Their little size, make them the perfect tea spoons to fit with the theme. I decided to make a sort of garden marker, which didn't need to be a literal marker that contained the name of the jade plant, but instead to contain a sentiment, in this case, Grow. I love to use text in my work, and I love it more when it contains double meaning. So, I designed my little demo, put it up on the net, invited our loyal crafters, and they turned out in droves. More than one of them said they came because the craft is "so unique". Yippee!
Below you will see what was made. While the weather was wet and blustery outside, we were warm and dry in the Wild Flour, planting our jade plants, while chatting with friends. Tables of kids, tables of moms and daughters, table of girlfriends, created their little gardens, which were little works of art. One girl used sand on top of her soil and built a little sand castle! The same girl lined her saucer ring with buttons and collaged her spoon with a great pattern, pulling the whole thing together. Other women covered their saucer with little circles cut from collage sheets, vintage flower fairies being the favourite. Which brings me to the side note, I made some of these with my daughters the other day, as mini fairy gardens. We are still working on our spoons, and I will post about it later. For now, check out what everyone came up with, with very similar, and simple materials. Then, go make one for yourself, and a few more as gifts....
