Help me find something frivolous!

[Andy Hamilton]

As some of you know to make ends meet I write for a bunch of magazines. Well.... one of these magazines has me writing seasonal articles. It normally breaks down to three parts, a wild food, a project and something to make. The last one being wild garlic, a windowsill herb garden and a haybox cookers.

I have been asked to come up with "something frivolous" for May. I have written about cherries for the wild food, elderflower champagne for the something to make and now I need a project. I am a bit stuck as of what to make and could do with some help. Any ideas?

[fruitcake]

Something around a charity May ball?

[red]

a may pole ?



and isn't June the month for elderflowers?

[Thomzo]

How about a fancy bag to put the champagne in as a present? You could make it from recycled materials. Alternatively a pretty bowl made from papier mache to serve the cherries in? It could be covered in decoupage cut from junk mail or old magazines.

Zoe

[ElizabethBinary]

Making homemade jewellery out of recycled rubber. Frivolous, fun and recycling! A lady near me does it and I love her work, and one company in Melbourne makes insanely intricate ones that look like thick lace going over your entire neck/wrist/ankle. They're expensive, too, so making your own with scissors, a couple snaps and leftover rubber from the scrapyard would do perfectly, I feel.

Edit: Example of a complicated piece:



Example of an easy piece:



You can also use bits of recycles steel as well, for men's pieces:

[crowsashes]

how about something to do with morris dancing and the may day celebrations?

[sleepyowl]

pampering products with herbs or oils, May is the time of beauty & fertility, so being the best you can be looks wise or giving that special someone a massage seems to fit quite nicely.

[oldfella]

How about a Pole ish lady named May, and a day in the woods with you,




"Foraging of course"

[Susie]

Seconding the idea about decoupage, but on a chair - like this. I think it looks really good. There's something on Apartment Therapy about how to do it as well. I am saying this selfishly though, as I've got a chair I'm waiting to try this on, and I want to know if it works before I start messing about with Mod Podge (whatever that is!)

And it could be more or less frivolous depending on whether you decoupaged it with Heat Magazine or the Guardian. ( )

(I LOVE the rubber jewellery! Where do you get recycled rubber from? I'm almost tempted to whip out a craft knife!)

[ElizabethBinary]

Seconding the idea about decoupage, but on a chair - like this. I think it looks really good. There's something on Apartment Therapy about how to do it as well. I am saying this selfishly though, as I've got a chair I'm waiting to try this on, and I want to know if it works before I start messing about with Mod Podge (whatever that is!)

And it could be more or less frivolous depending on whether you decoupaged it with Heat Magazine or the Guardian. ( )

(I LOVE the rubber jewellery! Where do you get recycled rubber from? I'm almost tempted to whip out a craft knife!)

There's a place near me called "Reverse Garbage" that salvages bits of rubber from different things. a lot of it is in sheets or cords so is very easy to work with. :D

[snapdragon]

A May wreath? like a christmas one but with may flowers and greenery, using whips from whatever woody is sprouting quickly (probably not dogwood ) to make the frame

[contadina]

Something pretty but non functional for the garden.

[Flo]

A May wreath as Snapdragon suggests to be used around the garden wherever you can hang it as Contadina suggests. And when it's finished you can compost it.

[Stonehead]

Rabbit skin bikini? Perfect for these colder months...

[Stonehead]

More seriously, I've been toying with the idea of getting a second-hand, hand-cranked grain mill and then converting it to bicycle power.

Mount an old bicycle on a stand, with props pointing forward and angled out on each side.

Remove the front forks and secure the head set with handle bars in the straight ahead position.

Mount the grain mill on the front of the head tube. Mount a frame below that on which to hang a sack to catch the flour.

Replace the crank on the grain mill with a sprocket. A bit of experimentation would be needed here to get the best ratio. You'd want to have a nice steady cadence on the pedals producing a fast but not too fast grind.

Connect the bike's chain ring to the mill sprocket with a chain.

Et voila! A pedal grain mill.

One person rides the bike, while another pours the grain in. Or, set up a Bowden cable-operated hopper that the rider can operate while peddling. If more grain is needed, pull a lever to open the grain hopper further, if less is need push the lever to close the hopper.

Frivolous enough?