HELSINKI - PEOPLE MAKE THE CITY
Laura asked me to make a DIY for the book and so I did this: a
keep-safe for small metal things - that are always lost like scissors,
needles, vintage wine bottle opener ( surely you have one) pins and what
ever you can imagine - the keep-safe made from
a traditional wooden distaff.
When people got married around 200
hundered years ago, grooms had to carve this kind of wooden precious
item to demonstrate their skills to girl they wanted to marry. Well nowadays the meaning is purely decorational. But I guess they aren't so hip at all. That's why I got the idea. They look beautiful but still would you hang it on your wall? I thought these handmade beauties needed a second chance - or life. So I made my magnetic keep-safe DIY.
Before I go to the DIY I want to tell you a bit of the pic above and my January. There you can see a huge plant and it is from my mom's home. It just arrived few weeks ago to our workspace Työhuone ovi 10. It's an orange tree she planted in the 1965. She had bought an orange from a grocery shop and thought why not to try to grow an orange tree from its seed and well, here it is - still after almost 50 years. It has always been at our childhood's home and now it will be with me. It's over 2 meters high and I hope I don't kill it. It's my mom's legacy and I really hope I can keep it alive at least another 50 years.
But why I have it?
My mom died suddenly in the beginning
of the year and I'm still having a hard time but January was the hardest time ever for me. Unreal, sad, unbalanced and hopeless. So it was wonderful
to have a short joyful photography moment with Laura. Most of these photos in this blog post are photographed by her (...and yes I've
cropped them, sorry Laura ;) But you have to go and see the whole book - maybe even buy one! It's just
lovely combination of interesting stories, places in Helsinki and great photography and it is in English!
You can find it here. I can notice I've missed writing - so much to say ;) but now let's go to the DIY.
MAGNETIC KEEP-SAFE DIY
You need:
a wooden distaff or other beautiful wooden item
a drill - a bit with the flat head with same diameter as your magnet
epoxy glue
piece of leather or thick fabric
something for hanging like metal hanger, hanger made of the leather - use your imagination
First drill the holes. Be careful - measure how deep you can drill without going through the wood. Holes should be quite close to each other.
Mix your epoxy glue.
Put some glue in the hole and put the magnet in it. It doesn't matter which side is up or down - negative or positive. They will try to stick together so take a piece of cardboard or something else to cover those that are drying in place. You have to be quite quick because epoxy is ready in five minutes. So plan first - then do.
After magnets are dried in their places glue a piece of leather or fabric on them because small magnets are dangerous for animals and small kids. Magnets stays under the leather if any of those magnets got loose.
Then the last task is to make hanger for your keep-safe. You can make one from metal wire, leather, strong cord or just buy one. Use epoxy to glue that also and after that keep-safe is ready. Time to have a good cup of coffee and let the piece of art dry.
I wanted to make this magnetic keep-safe for my favorite scissors because they are always lost.
I hope you got a very good creative ideas from this. I love to see if you make one. You can find me in
Instagram @kreettakreetta so it's easy to just tag me when you do this.
Let's enjoy the moments we have now. Have a creative weekend!
xoxo
Kreetta
