I have been working with my grandmother’s and great grandmother’s Christmas garlands, glass beads at least 70 and maybe as much as 120 years old.
No point in keeping them if I just keep them in cotton and never use them. They are large beads, fragile, the ends of the beads chipping at each other, and the garlands as a whole, kind of clunky looking. I had made a go of restringing them for my mother 40 years back with unsatisfying results.
But I was inspired by something I saw on Etsy, so now restringing them with little round beads protecting the ends of the large ones and spacing them out with bugle beads. Much more graceful, lighter, longer. glinting catenaries dancing on the tree.
And I repaired the chipped ends with colored foil from Lindt truffles - such an excuse for indulgence.
Also trying to finish a needlepoint started long ago. 14x14 stitches per inch, 14x14 inches. Close to 40000 stitches. One of the pair is done. I need something to listen to while working. I look at far larger hand-knotted carpets and think, dear Lord, there’s so much work in there.
And quilts for grand babies.
May I recommend listening to podcasts while working? Some of my favorites are “1001 Short Stories” “American History Shorts” “This American Life” some stuff by Lionsgate (just finished “Scamanda”) and “The Moth.”