In those days when there was still no Internet and all kinds of electronic gadgets, people entertained themselves as they could. But in hospital wards you won’t miss out. Of the available activities, only reading books and board games, which over time bored. Intelligent people came up with a new and exciting hobby - weaving from a dropper.
What can weave?
In principle, anything can be made from medical tubes. From the simplest crafts to complex compositions: key rings, pendants, bracelets, pencil cases, animal figures and much more. The most common things were primitive pendants, little devils and goldfish. They were often attached to the keys and windshield of a car or trolley.
This unusual weaving is based on knots and techniques taken from macramé. So, if you are familiar with this type of art or want to learn something new, be sure to try weaving from a dropper.
How to make colored crafts
Previously, you could only see transparent droppers. Therefore, craftsmen and needlewomen had to contrive to make beautiful and colorful crafts.
Before weaving, medical tubes were stained with available improvised means: brilliant green, iodine, blue, potassium permanganate, henna, and ink from pens. To obtain the desired shade, the solutions were mixed together and diluted with water to the desired color intensity.
In modern pharmacies and even in the departments for needlework, you can find ready-made tubes of all kinds of colors. But if you come across only transparent materials, it does not matter. You can always use the proven methods of painting and make a bright tube from the dropper with your own hands.
Weave a simple keychain
Take two tubes of different colors (for example, yellow and green) and put them crosswise. Yellow wrap the second dropper. We make a green loop and put its free end on top of another tube, and then from the bottom.
Tighten the weave a little. You should get a square knot. So we continue until the length of the keyring is satisfied. At the end, tie a knot and hide the ends or make a bow. Now you can move the ring and use the keychain as intended.
Cross-dropper weaving
First we will weave two blanks, as described above. These will be the lower and lateral lobes of the cross. That is, for each workpiece, two tubes are required, they need to be weaved separately.
Now we connect these parts using the same well-known technique. Four tubes go up and to the side. They are needed to make the upper and other lateral lobes of the cross. We just continue weaving with the same technique, first on the one hand, and then on the other.
When they reached the desired size, we make the final knot, and hide the tips. For reliability, so that the weaving from the dropper does not bloom during operation, the edges can be fixed with a hot gun. It remains to insert a ring or string.
We prepare materials for braided fish
- Two droppers.
- Scissors.
- A glass of boiling water.
First, make the necessary blanks. We remove unnecessary parts from the tubes - a needle and a filter. We take out the wheel from the dispenser, it is useful for the eye.
For the base, we will prepare two tubes about 40 centimeters long. We cut each as follows. On the one hand, we will make 4 strips of centimeters of 5, and on the other, 8 strips of centimeters of 15-20. Cut another tube (about 60 centimeters). Cut it along the entire length. You should get one wide strip.
Now prepare the eye. The medical dropper has a dispenser, remove the wheel from it. We take two more tubes 3 and 50 centimeters long. We cut them along the entire length. On short strips with scissors we make a fringe. It will be cilia. We put them on the wheel, apply a long tube and wind them to the end. The eye is ready. You can stick a needle for a while so that nothing unwinds.
Weave a fish
We take two prepared tubules and put them together. We do not touch the long incised ends, they will be the tail. We apply another wide strip to the whole place of the bundles and make two fixing coils. We begin to weave the body with a figure of eight, gradually expanding it from tail to head. Do not forget that the fish from the dropper has an eye. Therefore, the width of the body will depend on its size.
We apply an eye to the body. In the area of the fish nose, with two tubes, we overlap and lay them along the body towards the tail. The remaining tips will be fins. We make a couple of turns with a flat strip and hide it in weaving. For reliability, you can fix it with glue, but before you did without it, and nothing was dissolved.
If necessary, adjust the shape of the body with your hands. Lower the fins and tail in a glass of boiling water for a few seconds, they should curl. The fish from the dropper is ready!
If you introduce your children to this work, they will know what their ancestors did before. Be sure to try to weave something from the medical tubules. This is a short and very exciting process.