Mini Beading Loom Tutorial...travel size!!

On my recent trip to Florida I wasn't able to bring all my craft supplies, but I knew I would want to do some beading during some down time between Disney park visits....

So I decided to make a mini travel-sized loom to take and I wanted to share the process with you:


Supplies:

Wood pieces 1" thick cut to desired size (I cut one piece 3" width by 6"length, and two smaller pieces each 3" width by 1.5"-approx.-in length)

2 Eye Screws, 4" bolts, two wing nuts to fit bolts

Wood Stain (if desired)

Wood Glue and 2 clamps to secure while drying

Drill, Sand paper or electric sander


First, cut your wood to dimensions listed in supply section above:

Next, if desired, sand edges and surface of wood till smooth and stain with wood stain in desired shade:

When the stain has dried, use wood glue to connect the 2 smaller pieces to the top side ends of larger wood piece and add clamps to hold in place while drying as shown:

 

After the glue has dried, drill 4 holes into the each end of the two smaller wood pieces- as shown:

Add the eye screws to each of the 4 holes and use the bolts to screw them in tight:

 

Add bolts through the eye screws and secure with wing nuts on both ends:

 

Add two nails to each outer edge (if desired - not shown) to use to secure thread when threading the loom....

 There you have it. A mini bead loom to take along with you!

Let me know if anything is unclear in comment section and I will get right back to you. Also, if you want to make a larger loom, check out my other tutorial Here!

Till next time,

Wicked jypsi

Fabric Scrap Projects #1: Wrapped Lampshades Mini-Tutorial !

 It has been a while since I have done an official project post, but I have been busy taking trips and working hard to improve my drawing, collage and painting skills so I can launch a new line of art pieces due in the fall! 

But, in the meantime, I have been doing an overhaul of my home and cleaning out the ever-growing stash of unused art supplies that have gathered throughout the years. This has been a constant process and fabric stash has been neglected for some time. Therefore, it has been my focus to give away and/or use the scraps that I can't part with due to a wonderful design or color that rings with my creative side! 

I've come up with some projects from seeing lots of ideas online and, of course, Cost Plus World Market (my favorite store in the whole world and my constant source of inspiration each and every season) and have come to a short list that I am in the process of completing:

1. Fabric wrapped lamp shades (This Post :)

2. Wrapped Frames (open frames with cross wires to clothespin pics and notes to)

3. Another set of Prayer Flags to match my last set (shown in previous post: Here )

** Here is a (mini) tutorial on how I've made my lampshades:
 
I found some old lampshades at a thrift store that I stripped down to the wire frame. On one, I added a few cross-wires with some thick, but workable wire from the hardware store so that I would have extra wire cross-sections to tie the long and short fabric pieces to (this is only on the first lamp which I wrapped vertically. The second one, I left as is and wrapped the fabric horizontally -as shown below).....

I grabbed a basket of the fabric I had recently cut into strips (unfortunately in a variety of lengths due to the fabric pieces of different sizes I had to work with)....

I began wrapping and tying at each wire cross-section (vertically on the first (finished lamp) and then horizontally on the second (shown in empty lamp frame above) and continued until the entire lamp was covered to my satisfaction :))

I then applied the new glue I picked up "E6000-fabric Fray Check" to each of the knots and let it dry for about 2-3 hours- this glue is awesome by the way!! I then returned and trimmed the extra fabric from each knot so they appeared neat and clean and wouldn't fray or come undone due to the E6000!

Here is the finished lamp after I attached a chain to hang it with:

Either you can use a battery operated led light of some sort, or add a light socket kit and weave the cord through the chain to the plug!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I will be back with more....

Wicked jypsi