Friday 27 December 2013

Cat and Eilir Day 11




Pomanders
This was a long-term project started at the end of November/beginning December when we were away in Ironbridge. We took away with us oranges and cloves to start these smelly festive decorations off. It was one of the first things Eilir had said he wanted to do for the twelve days challenge (remembering them from two years ago). This time I did a bit of research on the 'proper' way to do them, i.e. rolling them in a fixative spice mix etc and leaving them to dry for a couple of weeks.
Initially I did two and Eilir one - he again modelled his one on one of his 'happy face' characters. When we got home Eilir loved mixing up the pungent spices (ground cloves, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and orris root powder) and rolling them around in the concoction.
We then left them to 'fix', getting a lively waft of Christmas spices every time we  passed.  Unfortunately two of them developed some neon green mold after a fortnight and had to go in the compost - so much for preserving them properly!
The last one is still going strong, so today we decided to make a couple of fresh ones to add to it to make a table decoration for a festive get together tomorrow. Team work was employed here with Eilir making the holes with a toothpick and me filling them with cloves. He broke up the toothpick to make eyes to finish. The little one is supposed to be a hedgehog.

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