My son did make the bow himself, mostly. We all like making things at our house, and the children have a workbench in my husband's shed, for their own woodworking projects. My son drew the shape of the bow, using a ruler for the straight bit and a tin can for the top and bottom curve. My husband cut it out for him, then my son sanded the bow, drilled the holes with a hand drill, and threaded through the elastic. He also sawed the notches in each "arrow" (under supervision) after clamping suitably shaped off cuts in a vise. I think this is pretty clever for a 6 year old, and am pleased to boast about it. Unfortunately, he was not at all interested in cutting out the fabric for his quiver, although he did cut his belt into pieces for me.
A few people were worried about the fate of the limes. My son is developing considerable accuracy with the bow, and there is a reasonable lime attruition rate. This is not a problem for me. We have 3 lime trees, all 10 years old, and I cannot use or give away the fruit quickly enough. (Although we are rather fond of poppy seed lime cake and lime marmalade). Fruit that we cannot use goes to the compost.
The reason for suggesting he aim exclusively at limes was to protect 1. His sisters 2. The chooks 3. Visiting wildlife and 4. Cars and backyard structures that we would prefer to remain relatively undamaged.
The original suggestion was to aim for the fruit on our Kaffir lime tree. The tree is grown mostly for its leaves, which are great in South East Asian recipes. You can also use the rind of the lime, but the fruit itself is inedible. My son felt that the rough appearance of the fruit was rather like dragon skin, hence his dragon hunting reference.
This became rather tame after a while, so he moved his attentions to our 2 Tahitian lime trees, for variety.
To get back to sewing, I have been sewing a little bit here and there. I am making my 3rd post- second- round- of- fitting vogue 7903 blouse. For this one I have used a lot of techniques from David Page Coffin's shirtmaking book, so it is taking quite a while.
I hope to post some finished objects later in the week.
2 comments:
I'm impressed that your family are all craftspeople! That's really great. I love to see kids making things.
I'm anxious to see what you're doing with your blouse. I have that pattern, and haven't made it yet. Isnt' David Coffin's book the best?
I am so envious. First of all for the kaffir lime. All of my citrus is from the original homestead (planted somewhere between 1910 - 1930 so far as local memory can tell) so bit by bit they are all dying. My kaffir lime just won't grow. I do, however, have the most prolific cumquat tree you have ever seen and a ruby grapefruit that has more fruit than leaves. The second thing is the ruffles on that blouse. I don't have the patience to do what you've done. They are perfectly spaced and so beautifully sewn! Look forward to seeing the rest. BTW, I have a galangal forest if you're into cooking Asian food. I can send you enough galangal to keep you cooking for momths!
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