Christmas Gift, Misdirected

It all started one lovely Christmas morning.

My daughter received a gift — a kit for making toy animals. The kit contained a loom for making rope, a bunch of styrofoam balls, some yarn and a set of instructions.

The animals looked sweet, and we decided to give it a try. But somehow my daughter was not really into it, while I on the other hand got totally hooked (pun intended).

The loom was made in the form of a cute red mushroom with four wire loops on top. A wooden pin to manipulate the yarn was included. The movement was simple, you could almost do it with your eyes closed. It was perfect — I had to attend a lot of meetings, and being a passive listener never worked well for me. Having something to do with my hands and still being able to fully concentrate on other things worked wonders for me. I became much calmer. I guess it was my first fidget. I was listening to speakers, watching TV, attending gatherings — all the time having that little thing in my hands, creating enormous amounts of brightly colored rope.

The next step was putting the rope to shape — gluing it to the styrofoam ball created a soft round object, and all I needed to do in order to bring it to life was to add googly eyes and to cut out fleece ears and other details — and soon a cute little pink pig was looking at me from the table.

Then the madness began :-)

I was never good at following directions and using patterns. I started to create them on my own, thinking constantly which animal would be good to represent in a round shape.

Obvious choices first — I made chickens, cute round pandas, penguins, owls…

And then the challenges started to pile up.

First my friend asked me to make a pig for her son’s birthday. I made the animal as requested, but something was not right. The pig was too pink and… honestly, too plain to be a birthday present. I had a pair of old jeans ready to be thrown away. I looked at them, and that’s when it hit me! I reached for my scissors — several cuts, glue gun to get the pieces together — and there is was, a denim cap for the cute pink pig! The cap made the animal look unique and special, and I felt satisfied with my creation.

The next request was from my daughter attending a birthday party. A family of blue mice was created, and in a whiff of inspiration I made tiny little hats for them. At that point I truly appreciated my sharp scissors — cutting out tiny details with ultimate precision was not an easy task, but good tools make all the difference in the world!

And then it was graduation time! A new request was made — a gift for a Berkeley college graduate, a Golden Bear… The request made me think for a while, and then I added a golden thread to the yellow yarn before weaving the rope. It was not overwhelmingly shiny, but with just a touch of gold added to the softness of acrylic yarn. Dressing the Bear was a whole different story! I made a dark blue cape, but the graduation cap would be a perfect finishing touch to the image! The question was, how to make it? I cut out a square for the top, and then added a rectangular stripe — long and narrow, I had to cut it in one move so the edge would be perfectly straight — luckily, my scissor blades were long enough to accomplish that task. And then I found a lid of a plastic vitamin bottle to form the perfect circle and used glue gun to attach it to the square top… easier said than done, I made 3 (or 9? Who counts?) trial hats before it was the way I wanted.

All my animals were based on the styrofoam balls, so round was the default shape. And then someone requested… a horse! Well, that was a real challenge to my creativity! Used to putting to work whatever I had on hand, I looked through my stash of “ just in case” materials — there were chopsticks! They made fine legs for the horse, and I cut a small styrofoam ball in half and glued it to a medium one — that was the horse’s head! I wrapped the brown yarn around my fingers, tied it in one spot — one swift move of the scissors, and I had a perfect horse tail! I sewed the parts together, cut out a caparison and bridle, and one by one attached the pieces of yarn for the horse mane. I was very proud of my creation!

And then I took it to the next level. My daughter’s friend was dreaming about unicorns, and what is a unicorn? A magic horse with a horn! I already managed to create a horse once, so the task was to create a proper horn. Oven baked clay provided a perfect solution! Already making a horn, I decided to add hooves as well. Silver clay was fitting for the idea, adding a touch of magic light to the snow-white unicorn.

I become a frequent visitor of the nearby fabric store. Discovering the aisle with discounted leftover pieces of fabric was like finding a hidden treasure. Small pieces of brightly colored fleece inspired me to create more and more, experimenting with shapes, cutting out the accessories…

Then the 100 days of school celebration jumped on us, requiring something to present which had a hundred of the same thing. In a store we exchanged $1 for a hundred pennies — but how to present them? They looked like lost scales… My daughter and I made a dragon with a jolly smile and a tongue sticking out — and attached whole hundred pennies to the body as scales…

My toys were a joy to make, but mostly I was giving them away as gifts, enjoying the smiles they put on people’s faces. But sometimes life turns around… My Mother got leukemia… Living far away, the only thing I could do for her was to pay for the treatment. On a tight budget, I needed a way to raise some money. Luckily my kids’ school was organizing Makers Fair where kids and parents could sell their crafts to show off their abilities and to raise money for the field trips.

I jumped at the opportunity! Working hard, I was cutting and glueing, putting together the popular animals — cats, dogs, chickens, owls were gathering on my kitchen table… I was making them as fast as I could, sometimes it seemed that my scissors were getting hot from all the cutting, and my glue gun was overflowing with the melting glue sticks….

I had a marvelous booth full of bright animals at the Fair, and my heart was filling up with hopes….

Sorry to say, there is no happy end to that story… My Mother’s treatment was changed after the coup in her country. The new government declared they will be providing free medicine for cancer patients… As someone said, the free cheese exists only in mousetraps. That happened to be true, the medicine that was supposed to go free to the patients was routinely stolen and sold at the black market. Someone got rich, and my Mother… my Mother become just one more number in a count of collateral damage…

Time heals everything, and slowly I got back to creating my toys…

One of my friends had a housewarming party, and I decided that there is no better present for the occasion than a House Guardian. According to folk tales, they are supposed to provide a happy mood for the house, cheer you up and steer away troubles, and also tend to your stables, sweep the floors and wash the dishes while you are asleep… Wouldn’t that be lovely? But unfortunately, I can only make the lazy ones… At least they still cheer you up with their mischievous smiles!

The latest of my creations was a parting gift for a friend who moved to another state. She is extremely fond of Oregon Ducks, and what could be better than to present her with their team mascot?

I spent several nights (days were overflowing with other essential tasks) creating a shape, baking a clay beak and eyes, and of course creating an outfit with the team logo. Thanks to my trusty scissors, I was able to cut out the stripes so thin that they fit perfectly on the duck’s tie… When later I learned that she was getting married, I just couldn’t resist and sent her a tiny lacy wedding veil I made for the duck.

Just imagine: somewhere far, far away there is a goofy Oregon Duck mascot wearing a lace bridal veil. If that doesn’t make you smile, I don’t know what would!