Key Holder from mesh

A piece of 1"x1" mesh was scrapped after a grill-work was done to a room12-13 years ago. Since it was neatly cut I just bent the 'protruding' ends and made it as a key-holder.  I found a wooden bird from a set of 5 and one of two saved. That was a set of wall decoration my father had been given in 1976 or so by Rotary Club of Mysore for some assistance he had provided during a small function. I stuck this bird to add some look to the holder.

Small carry bags

I cannot remember when I first stitched a hand bag from cotton cloth. It must be at least 35 years or so ago. I have been doing this every now and then, most of the time, just for kicks to convert some cloth piece into something useful.  I store these pieces in an old suitcase and if someone opens, it will look like a madman's collection of rags!  But that has come in handy oftentimes when smaller pieces were needed for some emergency patch work also. 

The easier ones to make are the carry bags of simple patterns.  There is a greater need for these to be used and carried around, in these times when plastic is a bane because it is misused and abused. With these on hand, we can boldly refuse a carry bag which means one or two bags less on that outing.   I have faced shopkeepers telling me that I was the first one to refuse a carry bag in his 4-6 years of business!  This only shows the utter neglect of the citizens towards the unwanted, growing garbage hill! 

Here are the smaller ones I have made over some years.  They are on a hook readily available for use. Just some basic skills in sewing will do to create any number of such things.  

The latest one is a shoulder bag [see image below] I made using my grandfather's beautiful cotton drill cloth trousers. They had been altered by my father to fit his waist and later I used too after another alteration. It is an old cloth, may be 50 years old and the quality is of very high class.  It could be used no longer as I had grown out of it and decided to cut to make this bag which will hang around for some more years. 

I later lengthened the shoulder strap as it was too short. 

That was how that bag was made.  Self-timer shot. Ten seconds time.  Had to set, click and run to sit there in the most natural way!

The four dots in permanent 'washerman's ink' are the identity mark of the washerman, one Papaiah, a frail old man who used to come home and pick the clothes for washing/ironing.  This was in the early 1960s. 

They are also called 'tote bags'.

Say no to plastic carry bags, whenever it is possible.  Save and protect the environment. 

Pen stand into book holder

The yellow teak pen stand cum visiting card holder [see slits] was a gift from a colleague many years ago.  After a while these things become useless.  But I found further use for this.  I converted it into a book stand also.  It can hold small booklets and letters.  I had two square rosewood pieces that matched the width of the stand.  They were from my father's 1930 coin box, broken and not survived time.  I drilled four holes to fix the bent stiff wire and then fastened these rosewood pieces at both ends. Lo, the holder was ready for better use.

I made a book holder

When I was visiting a friend, I saw a something on the table that I had not seen before.  It was of steel.  He showed me what it was when I asked.  Immediately, I thought it was one project I could do.  I thought I needed one for my use. So I borrowed it for making one like it, as a model.  Then I went in search of the required materials at the marketplace.  There are only two items in it.  One is the stiff steel wire and the other was a flat sheet of metal.

I found both items in one shop which sold that.  For the flat sheet, I bought some copper. I was ready to do. Accurately bending the very stiff and tough steel wire was a real challenge, given my limited tools. I did not use the little vice I had. The wire was thin, but very stubborn. Finally I could do it reasonably well.  I cut out the copper sheet for making the hinges. Luckily I had a cutter, which was actually a garden pruner my friend from Singapore had gifted me!  I also embossed 'D' on the sheet after fixing it using a key-ring with the 'D'!

In the collage above, you can see the book holder in all its positions.  I enjoyed doing this project and I used the holder on some occasions before the internet arrived!! I returned the borrowed steel holder to my friend and later showed my copy.  It won his appreciation and I cherished that!

My stamp album

Once again, this is not exactly unjunking, but creating something out of cheap materials, yet serving the same purpose.  But the one thing that was 'junk' in this project was the gift paper.  Read on.

That is my entire stamp collection. 

My 'Thematics' album.

My three main albums. The other two contains stamps of different countries, including old Indian stamps.

This is known as 'stock album', by philatelists. Album pages I made are of stiff card. 

'Butter paper' - some call it as parchment paper - protects the stamps on both sides of the page.

Close view of the strips of butter paper I stuck to keep stamps. Note the thin line at the bottom where it sticks to the yellow sheet.  I had flour paste as glue and I used to smear a broom stick with it and apply it on the card and then carefully stick butter paper strip to the card.  It was a lot of work, also requiring a lot of patience.  I also had time which was a bonus.  You can see why I had time, in this connected blogpost.  

First I had measured the card size and cut them out. Then I had made the butter paper strips, using a ruler and razor blade.  In those days, we did not have pencil knives like we do now.  It was really tough considering the tools I had then. The card was stuck with strips and folding in behind it the protruding ends of the strips.   This is how the album pages looks from the side.

Then another card prepared similarly was stuck to it back to back. The colourful gift wrapper paper was stuck on the left side after sticking the butter paper sheet on both sides.  This became one 'page'. All my sticking work was done with flour paste. After 30 years they stay good. 

Similarly I prepared a lot of sheets, working over some weeks.  I made these myself as I could not buy the costly ready-made stock books. It worked out cheap for me.  My meagre pocket money sufficed.   Moreover, I had a lot of pages that could be shuffled, because they were put together with a thread that ran through 'double punch' holes.  

This was my first album gifted by a German lady, Hassenbach, who was a friend of Dr.Radha of our opposite house.  The lady was visiting India and on knowing my interest in the hobby, gifted me with a little stock book and sent it through Dr.Radha after a few weeks!  It was very motivational at that time. I think I was just 11 or 12 then.  I tried to make my own album like this, but I could not and ended up doing what you saw above! 

Potter Wasp Nest Vase!

In an old shelf behind some bottles we had not used for sometime, I found this wasp nest with some ten holes.  A potter wasp had found a nice place for nesting!  When I found out, the nest had served its purpose and it was empty.  So I carefully removed it for examining. 

The shelf was out of doors in a passage and insects like the wasp had access.  I had kept the nest on my desk and at the same time, I had found 2 or 3 parrot feathers that had fallen below a tree at my workplace scooter shelters. I had brought the feathers home and found the holes of this 'work of clay' a nice place to keep them.  When there was a light breeze the feathers would sway and it was an enjoyable sight.  In about 15-18 months, I had found more feathers and you can see them all here, the holes filled up and made a nice vase!! 

The nest was something like this. Pictured on the left is a different nest.

Thread spool toy

Some boys in my high school class had made a toy that would move upon winding.  It was created out of stuff that were otherwise 'waste'.  The toy had only four main components.  A wooden thread spool, ball pen refill,  rubber band and a piece of candle. A few rotations of the refill to wind the rubber were all that were needed to make the spool move.  The candle piece would slowly release the rubber band tension as it unwound inside the hole. Simple mechanism!

Everyone was tempted to make one for himself.  I did it too, but only after much trouble in procuring its main component, which was the wooden spool which I did not find at home.  The sewing threads we had at home were on cardboard tubes.  So I had to go to our tailor's shop was close by to ask for an empty spool.  He would not part one saying "See, all of them have threads on them"!  Since he was our tailor, I resorted to persistent pestering to which he finally gave in and handed me a spool to me.  I was so happy.

The toy needed a thick slice of wax candle with a hole in the centre for creating that bit of friction needed for it to move slowly.  I used a razor blade to cut the slice carefully out from the base of a candle. Once this was done, the toy was ready.

I had taken my toy to a relative's wedding.  I would wind and leave it on the floor to see the fun when it touched people's feet under the chairs! In classrooms, racing competitions were held on desks during the short breaks. Pure fun!

I wonder how, where and by whom these little ideas originated!  This was a classic!

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For this post, I relived the old days in making one.  I had a similar wooden spool but I had forgotten I had wound the soldering lead to it and kept in some box.  When I found this yesterday, the joy I derived was similar when the tailor handed over to me!

It took me just 15 minutes to do.  See how it works - *click*.

Actually when the rubber band is a good one, the thing moves along steadily and more quickly than the one I got in the video.  Here are some images:

The spool I found now.

All materials ready.  Paraffin candle, rubber band, empty refill and knife.

Candle piece cut out. 

Ready!  The rubber band goes through the hole and is held by another piece of stick - here I used a folded card.  I also rubbed some candle for it to grip on the surface.