Bring on the straw

I've became foster mummy to a spinning wheel this week. All I know about spinning wheels is that they enable men of small stature to turn dried grass into precious metal. Thought that might be a plan, given the current economic climate. Only problem is, it's broken.

Well not really broken. Just slightly wounded. Its real mum uses it for decorative purposes only and lends it out to amateur dramatic groups (!). Therefore a few bits have fallen off over the years.

Frank Herring to the rescue. The wheel is a basic Ashford single drive. I learned this by watching a series of Utube spinning videos until I found one that looked like mine. Frank Herring, gawd bless him, provides a maintenance kit containing all the missing bits and I have sent for one. It costs £11 odds and contains a new drive belt (piece of string) and guides (cup hooks). See? The gold from dross thing is happening already! It's just happening for Frank Herring. But that's only because he has more spinning wheels than me....at the moment.....

I also had some girlies round for messy play. We mono printed with acrylics and wallpaper paste on calico. Great fun! You spread the gloopy mess on a sheet of acetate (or similar), scrape patterns into it and lift then off with the calico. When dry, you can mask areas off and repeat the process with another colour or pattern.
Its the 'when dry' bit I'm not so good at. Hence mine looks a little more oganic than planned. One girlie described it as 'very sixties'. Yes, well, so am I.