I've been waiting to show you this

I love spinning.  I love spinning with spindles.  I love drop spindles and I love supported spindles.  A few weeks ago I made a spindle from a clay whorl from Gambia (I think that's where it was from).  While I was spinning with it, I suddenly thought, what keeps me from making my own whorl.  I had a tub of clay that I've been using for another project so I got it out and started playing.

First I made one that was sort of oblong, another was square and then I found some cutters and came up with these:

With the round one, I did a little design before it dried all the way and I did a little something on the tip of the flowers but I haven't done any other decorating.  I need to get some paint to play around with now.  I love the retro look of the layered flowers.  They all spin reasonably well but I still need to finish the tops so I can spin of the end. 

Next I'm going to play around with adding some beads to the clay but I'll need to get some varnish or something first so the beads can be set into the clay.

In the meantime, I'm going to get started spinning.

Quick peek

I've been very lax in posting the last couple of weeks because there have been a few things going on, including a quick trip to Paris.  Sounds very cosmopolitan, right?  Well, it was cool and it was quick (I had a day and a half to sightsee and a very, very looooong day in meetings with 3,000 people - company meeting) and I haven't quite caught up with myself yet.  It hasn't helped that I spent the entire weekend sleeping fitfully and sneezing and blowing my nose.

But regardless, I got my beaded purse all but finished.  I don't think this is going to be the final handle for it but I've got it lined and attached to the frame and I wish I had somewhere to wear it!

It came out far, far, far more fancy pants than I intended when I started but it started and there was just no stopping it.  I've got it hanging on my dress form just because the black showed up the beads better but it is carried by hand.  I love the clever frame that expands out to open.  Very Victorian.