An exploratory trip to the new branches of HobbyCraft and Dunelm Mill that recently opened in Oxford turned out to be on the expensive side. We picked up a number of things we needed, a number of things that struck us as useful and then a number of things that simply caught our fancy. In the first category were things like some PVA glue for Jane’s crafting activities and in the second group were some new towels in glorious yellow and green colours to replace ones that have started to get a bit threadbare.

Among the category three items was a sheet of perspex with evenly drilled holes and some metal pins to fit in them, along with a coil of copper wire. This was for wire craft, with the idea of making some knotwork designs that can then be hammered flat and used for embossing.

My first experiment was not an unqualified success. The string prototype came out better than the wire version and I have realised I need a thicker wire for the effect I was envisaging. I also have not yet figured out an easy way to get the proper alternation of over and under through out the design. However, for a first attempt it was reasonable and I hope to come up with some better pieces before long.