GetCrafty Craft Facts

Q: I'm getting serious about making this! I'm gonna start it Aug 19th, in Indy, my "Olympics project". The leather, to make the chest, should be here by then, 1/2 hide, very thick, 23.25 sq feet. The lights, which will be hidden pretty deep to give an indirect effect, will be 1 or 2 strands of 8 function christmas lights that I have currently made into "wreaths". I found a super fiber-optic lighting set for this, but they wanted over $400!!!

A: I got the styrofoam and probably have what I'll use for the baseboard. Somewhere, in the attic, in all those boxes of porcelain, is quite a lot of foreign bills and coins which I'll use to hide the lighting wires. I might use a few pieces of the porcelain in the bottom layers, too. Then comes the fun part. Add beads, make jewelry, add more beads, make more jewelry... Though that part will probably never end, hopefully I will have something worth looking at before the end of October. The fun's in the making of it, so once I've got the non-bead stuff done, I'm not gonna hurry. I see a real nice bundle of the strands in the 1.5 meter length, but if I start from scratch, I'd need to know what I'm doing. I can't find a book on using this stuff to make lights, except for an $80 book that is for doing the whole building/house; looks like most the info is on telephones and LANs. Lewis, this is just TOO darn cool - I can hardly wait to see it!!!! I have LONG wanted someone to make me large stained glass panels to fit in the sidelights and toplight of my front door - the top was to be an above-ocean scene, and the sides were to be underwater, with mermaids and sunken treasure. I just may have to try harder to find someone to do it so I'll be ready.