friendship bracelets, the queue & some random pottery
March 13th, 2009
Almost a year ago my Flickr (and real-life!) friend Jamie posted a photo of her nieces wearing friendship bracelets. It was captioned with a story about how her older niece really wanted a “BFF bracelet.” They tried making some from a kit, but ended up deciding if they wanted to stay BFF’s that they should probably just buy some bracelets instead.
It is perhaps a little-known fact about me that I love making friendship bracelets. I first learned how to make a simple diagonal-stripes bracelet at Camp Luther when I was maybe 10 years old. It was all the rage that summer. Everyone was carrying around half-finished bracelets in their pockets and working on them at odd moments, then trading the finished bracelets with one another along with pledges of friendship and promises to write.
Long after the bracelets fell off, the addresses were lost in messy rooms and the good intentions were buried under the business of school-year life, I retained the habit of making the bracelets. The embroidery thread was cheap and the bracelets were fun to make and wear and give out to my friends. When I went back to camp the next summer I learned how to make a few more styles, and a few more the summer after that. Even when my camp days were over I continued making bracelets occasionally. Over the years I’ve taught dozens of kids how to make them.
When I saw that photo of Jamie’s, the bracelet-maker in me shook her head sadly at the thought of someone having to buy friendship bracelets. I offered in a comment to make a few bracelets for them. I had fun at the craft store looking at the embroidery floss, something I hadn’t done in ages. Annalie helped me choose colors. I tucked a zipper bag of the floss, some safety pins (for attaching bracelets to my jeans or shoes while I worked on them) and nail clippers (for snipping the floss) into the bag of crocheting that I took with me in the van, and it gave me something to do on the five-day trip from Maryland to California.
When we got to our new home, I stuck the bag with the finished bracelets and extra floss in the hall closet, thinking I’d get around to sending it one day when we weren’t in the middle of unpacking. Then I, um, sort of forgot about them.
Fast-forward to Big Lots last week, where I saw these Build-A-Bear gummy snacks and immediately thought of Jamie & her nieces, who love to go to Build-A-Bear together. Then for some reason, the bracelets flashed into my head. I smacked my forehead and realized they’d been sitting in the closet for EIGHT MONTHS. I went home and found them exactly where I thought they’d be, slipped them in a padded envelope along with the gummies and a little something extra, and mailed them off.
You think it’s bad that I spaced on sending some bracelets that I voluntarily made for a friend who didn’t even ask for them in the first place? How about having someone commission me to paint her a pencil cup, someone who was an actual cash-paying customer, and not getting around to painting it for two months? (Let’s not even talk about how long it’s taken me to crochet those flower scarves, or mention that felted bag.) Geesh. The good news is that it’s in my Etsy shop now. Thanks again for your patience, Kerri! I meant what I said, if you don’t love it I will gladly paint you a new one at no additional cost.
It’s not that I’m a procrastinator—I mean, I am a procrastinator, but that’s not the main reason I take so long to finish projects sometimes. Life gets busy, and I’m relatively lazy. I am not one of those people who’ll work and work and work like crazy to meet deadlines. I tend to arrange my life so I don’t have a lot of hard-and-fast deadlines, in fact. I try to mail birthday cards out early but am resigned to the fact that I rarely do.
The facts, though, are that I have an Etsy shop and I choose to take some custom orders for crocheting and pottery. Now, I love doing custom orders. They challenge me and keep me crafting on a regular basis. Usually I get them done pretty quickly, but sometimes an order will sit on the back burner for a while. I always make sure that’s okay with the person who commissioned the order, of course, and so far I’ve had very patient and understanding customers. But I’m horribly unorganized at keeping track of them all. It is only by the grace of God that someone hasn’t gotten totally forgotten before now.
Here’s my solution: I’m creating a page on this blog of the crafts in my queue. Some of them are personal, gifts I’m making for friends, and some of them are things I’ve been commissioned to make. The main reason for the page is so I can keep track of what crafts I should be working on, but it’s also so people can look at it and see where their project is on the list. I’m not making it a schedule, there are no dates, but the projects are listed more or less in the order I’m planning on tackling them. If you are one of those people who has asked me to crochet or paint something for you, whether you’re a real-life friend or someone who only knows me online, feel free to poke around and find the link. If you don’t see your project on the queue, PLEASE let me know.
Enough about that. Wanna see some more pottery?
The last time Annalie went with me to paint, I encouraged her to do a handprint plate for me. I have a 4-inch square trivet that we painted together when she was not quite three, and her little hand fit onto the tile. Annalie chose the colors and painted the stripes around the edge of the plate without any input from me.
Once again, she wrote her name and drew one of her signature smiley flowers with a pencil, and I painted over the pencil with a thin brush. I just love her flowers.
A couple of years ago in Maryland, my mom painted a mini chip-and-dip tray as a gift for my brother. She planned to paint another one like it for herself at some point, but the pottery studio never had them again. I’d never seen them at our studio here either, until the other day. I grabbed one and dotted it in shades of my mom’s favorite color. Perfect for Fritos and bean dip.
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I LOVE FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS!! And ironically, I’m making one right now – it’s sitting right in front of me clipped to my keyboard cord.
You gals sure are talented pottery painters.
I used to make friendship bracelets too! In fact, I was digging around in a few boxes under my bed yesterday and came across my little box of embroidery floss. It also had a few safety pins and a pair of fold-up scissors in it. I pulled it out of the box so that maybe I would be inspired to make something soon. :)
Happy belated birthday :)I heard via Saj as I’ve not been on my “puter’ much for a few days and missed all the fun. I’m going to catch up on your blog posts right now. Have a great day.
oh the times of the friendshiß bracelets…i remember tons of girls walking through school having those unfinished bracelets attached to their jeans….
i love the chip’n'dip tray you did for your mother! i’m sure she’s happy to have one now:)
have a great day
I LOVE the project queue idea! I need one of those!
I think the handprint plate is a very cool idea. You’d be hard-pressed to get me started on that and not make a full set of 12, though =P
I’m sorry I’ve not yet responded to your e-mail. I didn’t have time last night, but I’ll definitely get to it tonight!
Oh, how I used to love making friendship bracelets. Anytime I had money, I’d request to be taken to the craft store for my embroidery floss.
ALSO – love the mini chip and dip. I’m thinking something like that would be perfect for hummus and pita breads.
This posts reminds me, I was shopping the other day and came across a Zooboomafoo computer game of sorts. Thought of Annalie and picked it up. (Nevermind that I’ve never met you, or that you never asked for it. LOL) Now it’s sitting on my desk, and I’ve been debating whether to email you to ask you for your address or not…
So, can I have your address? I promise I wont stalk you… just a little bit maybe. LOL.
Just yesterday I went to the local pottery place. The kids were all set to start their painting when I noticed that ALL THREE PLATES were cracked. The owner (?) of the place told me that it would not survive the firing (?) so instead we went to Wal-Mart, bought our own paints and some birdhouses. They turned out really cute. I’ll have to take pictures and share.
Love the dottery for your mom. Blue is my one of my favorite colors. :) I love the bracelets too… I think I just found our next art project. Thanks for sharing.
I too can leave projects for people around and forget to finish that last little thing or just plain mail them off. I have been trying to get better, but sometimes I have to kick myself in the butt.
I love your dottery, it just makes me so happy, all of it.
And I need to tap into your resources on how you added that queue page, I have been trying to add a page to my template forever and it just isn’t working the way I want it to.
Blue dots! Your Mom and I would get along famously, I’m sure :)
I’d comment, but I’m off to make a friendship bracelet… or twenty!
I, too, remember those years in the 80s? when the friendship bracelets were so popular and we wore them up our arms! Sooo many friends. ;) I love your post about procrastinating and not making deadlines..and that you admit you are relatively lazy. There is someone out there who understands me. :)
I found you via stumble and now check daily. First off, happy belated birthday.
Second of all I am so envious of your talent and I’m going to scrape together money for a set of adorable mugs by you! *clap*
1. I have to say that as soon as you said “queue” I knew where it would be. :)
2. I love friendship bracelets and I would get custom orders for them when I was in JH. They were so much fun to make.
Bethany, if I ever make it to CA, or you make it over to MD anytime I would love to meet up with you to go paint some pottery. Remember I was telling you that I had found a place nearby…well I rounded up my kiddos and headed there (40 mins away) only to find the place had gone out of business. I was soooo hoping to make some great pieces :(
Aww, I used to make friendship bracelets like that too. I would need a refresher course though on making them again, I cannot even remember the first step.
And that platter…adorable!
Wow! Totally flashback to the 80s when friendship bracelets and pins were all the rage! I can remember doing those ALL the freakin’ time! WOW! How much fun!
Friendship bracelets! I love them! I only knew how to make one kind, though. Choosing the colors was pretty much the best part.
I know you’re not the only one who gets behind on crafty gifts. Recently I rounded up a bunch of pictures I’d printed out of my best friend’s daughter and put them in an album. Most of them were from the day the child was born…and how old is she now? THREE! Still, my friend was thrilled to have them. You know what they say…better late than never!
That tree cup is just beautiful…do you paint on paper too? That’d make such a sweet card…