Confession Time: Reflections on a Making Mishap

I’m afraid it’s confession time already.

Don’t worry, nothing major, only this: I had intended my third blog to be about one of my creative projects. Unfortunately, the particular project I had in mind, and did in fact start documenting, turned into a bit of a disaster. So, instead of a documentary process about a successful make, this is more like a reflection on a making mishap.

I’ll tell you where it all started; Pinterest. I’m sure you’ve been there, scrolling through the pins, coming across things other people have made and being both impressed and motivated to give it a go yourself. That was me about a week ago. Given it’s October, and no it’s not too early, I’ve started thinking about Christmas.

For me that means making my annual collection of Christmas crackers (I’ll share a hopefully more successful blog on how I make those soon, cross everything!), and making a few new pieces for my Etsy shop; Makes by Hand. That’s where Pinterest comes in. It’s brilliant for inspiration, at any time of year to be fair, but especially at Christmas.

The particular pin in question that inspired me this time, was this one:

Looks simple enough right? 

Well, in my very recent experience, I’d have to say that’s not the case! I knew I wanted to create my pine cone trees within embroidery hoops, to give it my own twist - I’m not really one for copying anything directly if I can avoid it. I thought pretty little pine cone trees sitting in an embroidery hoop would make lovely alternative Christmas tree decorations. To be honest, I still do… this first attempt just didn’t cut it. In fact, I never even made it to the point where the pine cones met the embroidery hoops!

I decided to dust my pine cones, which I brought back from Elgin in March and have been waiting patiently to find a project for (and yes I am that person that fills their pockets with stuff they pick up on walks), with glitter. A twist on the Pinterst version, but one I figured would work well.

I started by dipping the pinecones in some trusty PVA glue, before repeating the dipping process with glitter, and making one heck of a mess along the way. I was aiming for an effect that looks like snow had settled on the scales (had to Google what the parts of a pine cone are called for that word), like snow on a tree. Perhaps a little ambitious as it all turned out as this was, I think, my first mistake.

But, not to be perturbed too early I thought I’d continue on and add the bauble decorations to the pine cone. I chose to use small white pom poms and some silver sparkling polystyrene balls I already had in my craft supplies, which I thought looked about the right scale. But right scale or not, the end result was, well, see for yourself…

I’d say, at best, it looks like a pinecone that’s been child safety proofed. Hilarious, but not quite the magical Christmas decoration I had in mind. I think it’s back to the craft shop and back to square one on this make. Luckily, I have plenty of pine cones left, so watch this space for attempt number two, and let’s hope we move away from child proof and closer to winter wonderland this time!

What a disaster 😂