Holiday Gifts: Crafts
Ceramics is a relaxing hobby that allows for great creativity and personalization. There is enough in the way of simple projects that even the beginner can put together a beautiful array of holiday gifts. You can start from scratch using poured pieces (green ware); cleaningA, painting, firing, glazing and firing again or you can buy pieces that are already cleaned and fired (bisque) paint and glaze them. There are an almost infinite number of different pieces to choose from. You can make statues, candy dishes, lamps or chess sets.
You are really only limited by your imagination. Children love painting on bisque (much easier for a child to work with as it isn't as easily broken as green ware) Check your local phone book for ceramic shops to find the ones that offer lessons and in no time you'll be making gifts people will cherish. You can find Santas and pumpkins, turkey platters and figurines of Uncle Sam. You can put together a base topped with several figurines and make it into a night-light or dresser lamp. In fact you can find something for just about any holiday as well as for other gifting like showers and birthdays or anniversaries.
If you don't have time or the inclination to make your own there are ceramic pieces for sale in just about every store you go into. There are decorative plates and glasses, vases and jewelry boxes, dolls and figurines. There are all kinds of sets of figurines; storybook characters, wild west towns, the entire cast of Star Wars characters, complete Christmas villages, entire renaissance worlds with castles, wizards, trolls, dragons, kings, queens, knights. The best part about some of these is that you can buy one piece for each holiday building the set slowly or buy it all at once.
Other great crafts for holiday gift giving are knitting, crocheting, cross-stitch and sewing. Scarves, sweaters, potholders, Afghans, dresses, shirts and the list goes on. Change the color and the design and you can have a gift for any holiday. When you knit, crochet, sew or cross-stitch a piece for someone you can personalize it in the colors and styles that you know suits them.
You can always hook a rug or pillow. There are complete kits that come with a preprinted canvas the hook and all the yarn you will need or you can buy a piece of canvas and draw your own design, buy a hook and your yarn and you're good to go.
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What are beautiful ways to present the turkey on Thanksgiving?
This is my first year doing Thanksgiving for the family and I saw a photo of a turkey on a platter on top of lettuce with a bunch of fruits around it. What type of lettuce is appropriate for this? I couldn't tell from the picture what kind it was. Also what kinds of fruits or other items should I put around it? Any help is great!! Photos would be helpful too.
I would suggest using kale for the turkey platter. Kale is that very dark green and very curly leaved stuff that you see in some deli cases surrounding the cut meats. It is also relatively inexpensive. http://bilingualbaby.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/inside_products_kale.jpg
Use oranges cut in halves to garnish the platter. Cut the oranges in half using a "jigsaw" pattern. I couldn't find a picture of one, but here is a photo of a watermelon bowl with that sort of "zig-zag" cut I am talking about: http://sarajanes.com/01337.htm
Also pretty would be grape clusters, both red and white grapes. You can even make them frosted for a real eye-pleaser. Just dip the bunched grapes into gently beaten egg whites (not stiff whites, just beat them until they are a little frothy with a fork), and then dip the grapes into table sugar and place on a paper towel to dry. Tis photo shows only single grapes, but I would use clusters of 12 or so : http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/995/668903.JPG
Figs are an especially beautiful and trendy garnish. They tend to be a little expensive....but in greater supply during the holiday season. Just cut them in half from top to bottom, leaving the stem on. Place them around the platter among the oranges and grapes. They are so pretty and earthy-looking.
I know you'll do great! Have a lot of fun an enjoy.
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Turkey Platter
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