SOME HOME HOBBIES

Evening Star, Issue 20987, 29 December 1931, Page 2

SOME HOME HOBBIES

PLEASANT WAYS OF MONEYMAKING Why not mako your winter hobby pay for itself and show a profit as well? Our thoughts aro now turning to some means of amusement for the long dark evenings, and though most girls have a hobby of some sort, few seem to realise its possibilities. There is a great demand at this time of the year for pretty and original knick-knacks, and though the shops do not want to take on extra hands they aro quite willing to pay good prices to x 3e °pl° who will do work in their own homes. LAMP SHADES. Any girl who is clever with pencil or brush and has some flair for designing could soon work up a good connection by painting parchment lamp shades. Plain shades can be purchased quite cheaply, or if you are working for shops they will probably supply you with them. First draw your design on tissue paper with Indian ink, making firm lines. Place this inside the shade, so that it shows through the parchment. Trace the lines of the pattern firmly r > the shade with a camel’s hair brush and fixed Indian ink. Then fill in the design with coloured inks, remembering to mako it as bright as possible, as colours always look paler with a light behind them. Fur gloves, too, are very much in demand in these motoring days. They aro quite easy to make, and the materials are not expensive. All that is required are a few rabbit skins, a furrier’s knife for cutting them out, some fine crewel needles for sewing the skins together, and fleecy material for the lining. The rabbit skins are bought ready cured, and aro pegged out, skin supermost, on a wooden board before being cut. Use a good paper pattern, and remember to allow plenty of room between the fingers to avoid danger of splitting. It is better to use the cheaper wild rabbit skins at first, then, ns proficiency is obtained, more expensive gloves can be made from, the beautiful chinchilla variety. A GOOD PROFIT.

Tho materials for the cheaper gloves cost from three to five, shillings a pair. These would sell easily for ten or twelve shillings, and thus a very good profit could soon be made by any girl, either hy disposing of her work to shops or privately among her friends. Then sealing-wax work is very popular this season for the decoration of wooden articles—boxes, cigarette eases, and the like. Break up a stick of coloured wax into a jar of methylated spirit with a closely-fitting lid to make it air-tight, and in a few days it will have melted into liquid paint. Apply with a small paint brush on to tho wood, first tracing the design in pencil, and tho result will hare the appearance of costly enamels. The background should be painted in first and then the design picked out as carefully as possible. Another method of using sealing wax is to melt it in a candle, and then with a steel knitting needle shape it into sprays of loaves and flowers. "When making leaves, for instance, drop blobs of green wax in the required planes, shape them with a knitting needle, and then mark out the veins and edges with a fine darning needle. LEATHER WORK. Leather work, cither in tho soft suedo Persian or in harder leathers like calf and cow hide, is always fascinating, and tho tooling and staining easy to learn. Gloves, moccasins, bags, needle cases, etc., can ho made from the softer kind, and wallets, writing cases, larger bags, and other things for longer wear are made from the harder leather. Then there are a score of other crafts —rug making, metal work, wood carving, pottery painting, head work, etc. —all of which can he learnt in a few lessons and offer great possibilities, and, of course, any girl who is fond_ of sewing is never at a loss for making pretty and useful articles. In this case it is hotter to concentrate as far as possible on one definite thing rather than a miscellaneous collection of articles. A girl who is noted for her pretty children’s smocks, or a novel kind of work hag, or daintily-dressed dolls, will attract more notice and obtain more orders than the girl who docs “ just anything.”