I can make something with that!

The title to this post is a phrase that often pops into my head and is the clarion call to many inclined to hoard and prevents items that enter my house from leaving again.

Now this is not always a good thing as often the something never occurs to me, (well not until after the item has eventually been thrown out) and sometimes it is a good thing and I can make a castle at short notice.

Sometimes the phrase strikes me in a charity shop and some odd or broken item will come home with me, the prospect of a new function before it...occasionaly the idea is immediately applied and sometimes it lingers.

This is a project that has been lingering.  Not sure what this little item is supposed to be.

set with stones on the front

A little tab on the back (sort of a clip, but not sprung) now I bought it for 50p with that "I can do..." thought in my head but with no fixed idea of the what!

I began to think that with a top of some sort perhaps it would be a neat container for my cross stitch needles.  How to get a top, a stopper.

Carve one out of wood. 

It sort of worked, and fit at first, then it shrank a little and was loose. A strip of soft leather inside the tube tightened the fit up just enough but I was not happy, it was missing something.

Wait a few weeks, or maybe more and I spotted a bent adjustable ring in the same shop.  Another 50p came out of my purse with the thought, that might go with that other thing I bought.

Of course it was round, my needle case to be was more rectangular.  But as the ring was not solid, and had been a bit squished in the first place it felt ok changing its shape further with pliers.

Out came the grinding tool to make a groove in the wooden top that the manipulated ring would slide into.

You may have noticed the red bead has come off, this is not progressing as smoothly as I had hoped at this point.

Pause!

Why?

It still felt like it was missing something. Not sure what but something.  I couldn't decide if  I should paint the wood silver or just varnish it . Whatever I decided needed to be done before the ring was glued on.

So. well it waited and waited and waited some more.

Then when the inspiration for the  Bee box struck I decided that was what was missing. Something that said me, and in this instance a bee. The same bee I was going to put on the box.  It fit nicely.

Now after my experiment with the box the question of what to do with the wood was sorted, just varnishing. 

The varnish made quite a difference to the little wooden lid.  I am quite pleased with it. Much better result than the box, must be the way different wood reacts with the varnish

So glue the bent ring to the wooden stopper and the red stone back on, oh and the blue one that fell off as well!....

and

 all finished and the something made.

Now I have to try and remember what safe place (shwoosh doors to an alternate dimension open at that phrase I am sure they do) I put my gold plated cross stitch needles that I thought would go in here!