Living on the south coast where there are few waves in the sea, there is a
small surfing community, and we have a so-called highly-expensive artificial
"surf" reef which has been being built, repaired and tweaked for several
years without working as promised and likely never will. That means that, as
well as a coupe of specialist surf shops, the supermarkets also sell cheap
high-density polystyrene surf boards and the shorter flat body boards
(they're around 3 feet long by 18 inches wide, probably a bit bigger). At
the end of the season when few people have bought the boards, the
supermarkets sell them off very cheaply. I bought a couple for GBP 3.5O each
intending to remove the plastic covers and cut each into two approx. 18 inch
flat lacemaking pillows. It's the same high density polystyrene that pillows
are made from. Even bought a hot wire cutter (bit like a hack saw but with a
wire for a blade attacked to a battery) to cut the foam without ending up
with white bobbles anywhere.
Of course I didn't get around to it and ended giving them away to a couple
of local children. But one was used as a vertical pillow to demonstrate
lacemaking stitches on a larger scale to a local WI group, using knitting
wool for thread and dolly pegs for bobbins.
I did have a couple of straw-filled domed pillows, but much prefer flat
light-weight polystyrene ones, but I can't cope with a pillow more than 20
inches in diameter.
Polystyrene is cheap enough (especially using body boards) to replace a
pillow when it's no longer fit for use, although I haven't had one crumble
yet, possibly because I don't make small motifs, but prefer larger items
such as fans of pictures, and therefore don't keep using the same spot on
the pillow over and over again.
Jean in Poole, Dorset, UK
-
To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line:
unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to
[email protected]. Photo site:
http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003/albums/most-recent
