Making Messes Leads to Success

Last week, I actually got back to work on “The Gift of Sensitivity,” my Princess and the Pea diorama. It was yet another reminder that before I make an acceptable miniature,  I’m going to make messes and fail. My challenge this week was making a miniature basket by hand.

I started on this back in June. Inspired by a YouTube video, I started with some hemp twine I found at the thrift store. The video made this process look much easier than it actually is. Holding the threads in place while weaving around them was awkward and fiddly. Part way through my all-thread basket, I started a second basket using wire supports.

Wire made the weaving easier, but I was still getting disappointing results. I wasn’t paying enough attention to my thread twists and I made the mistake of trimming off the wire ends before coating the thread in Mod Podge. I wound up with a basket that’s falling apart. It didn’t matter, because it was also too small. I needed a longer thread than suggested.

Frustrated, I took a three-month break. I thought about it many times, but I couldn’t bring myself to work on it. Last week I finally pulled out my supplies, tools, and notebook. I read through my notes. They spelled out everything I’d done so far (thank goodness), making it easier for me to start again.

I had struggled to keep the wires from shifting, so I taped them together in the middle. Then I started adding thread. I paid careful attention to the tension I was applying and how things were looking. I stopped when I realized things had gotten messy during the last five rows. I set it aside until the next morning, when I was finally willing to undo the messy part before continuing.

I used twice as much thread as I had previously. When I got to the end of my string, I was going to add more, only I accidentally broke off one of the wire struts. Since I definitely didn’t have enough of the thread to make yet another basket, I declared this one big enough. 

To finish it, I coated it in Mod Podge, let it dry, then clipped the wires short. I twisted together more twine and glued it to the top edge of the basket to hide the wire ends. I made the handle by coating twisted twine in Mod Podge, taping it around a bottle, and letting it dry. 

The area I had taped left a hole in the bottom of the basket. I toyed with weaving in more twine, then realized it would be frustrating and probably mess up the basket in the process. Instead, I made a little disk of rolled twine and glued it in place. The kluge is fairly obvious if you look closely, but this basket will be sitting on the ground (or possibly a chair) with stuff in it. I don’t think anyone is going to get a good look at the base of it once it’s in place.

I declare this accessory to my scene done. It’s not perfect, but it is good enough. Technically, it was easy to make: it only took me three tries to get something acceptable (unlike the nightgown). I’ll be surprised if the rest of the project goes this smoothly.

Are you willing to make messes to get to the product you want?