Camp Tales - Flooded

In honor of the recent heavy rains...

At the first camp I spent my summers in the Craft Hall, the camp was divided into two sides and connected by a driving a bridge and an iconic walking bridge. The boys cabins were located on one side, with the pool, a Recreation Building, and a scattering of other buildings. This was usually refered to as the "Boys' Side," for obvious reasons. The other side, included the multi-purpose building (that housed the staff), the camp offices, the dining hall, the Craft Hall, and of course, the girls cabins. (This calling it the "Girls' Side.) Each side had bathrooms and showers and a road to get in and out (although the one side was less used and needed a vehicle capable of rougher terrain.) The bridges were very important to movement back and forth connecting camp, as well as for non-resident staff to get to the staff parking and for delivery trucks to the dining hall.

Boards were placed in the car bridge regularly to dam it for canoeing, a feat that often took multiple staff members to achieve safely. We had to be careful in times of rain, especially rain as the water would rise a start to lap over it. With caution some vehicles could get over this like going through a puddle, but after one very heavy rain driving over the bridge became impossible for ANY vehicle, not matter how high they sat. The high water flooded over the driving bridge and onto the bank, too fast and deep to risk any vehicle, and leaving access to the two sides of camp to a higher sitting walking bridge. (Where all these pictures were taken from.) Extra caution was taken and food delivery trucks had to be unloaded on one side of camp and carried across the foot bridge and across most of the camp to get to the kitchen/dining hall. The real adventure was seemed to be on the smaller cars "trapped" on the other side of the bridge, unable to leave without using the back road, a rough one through trees and up a steep hill. With caution, it could be done, but there was a very real fear of bottoming out or getting stuck.

Camp life was rarely boring and one never knew what might lead to the next adventure, even heavy rain and a low lying bridge.

Fire & Water Beaded Slave Bracelets

Water

More projects from that box of beads and wire I got = Fire & Water beaded slave bracelets. (For those who don't know what a slave bracelet is, it's combination bracelet/ring attached by a chain or combination of some other type of decoration.)

I started with one piece of wire about 20-24 inches long, in this case making the entire piece of jewelry out of one piece of wire. I measured approximately by wrapping it lightly around a finger, up my hand (doubling the as I used for this design), and around my wrist, leaving extra length for working on the twists and attaching the closures at the end. (Always make sure you have enough to work with, you can always trim off excess.)

Loosely fold in half. The halfway point will be approximately under your finger.

Start stringing seed beads to create a ring shape at the central point of the wire. (For the water colored one, I used a combination of blues and greens. For the fire colored one, I used a combination of yellow, red, and orange.) Measure around your finger as you go to make sure it isn't too small to go over your finger(s). A little big is better than too snug. When a ring shape was created I gave it a few tight twists (a pair of needle nose pliers to help get it tight). Then I used a slightly larger seed bead down over the twist, wrapping the wire up through the bottom, 'locking' the ring shape in place and making it easier to create the strand down the hand. Check again to make sure it fits your finger before going on. If it doesn't fit right, it's better to have to undo your work here, than later.

Now create a design of equal design down the two wires that will run the length of the hand. (I went for a twisted design, intertwining the bead colors and giving it twice the strength for attaching the bracelet and the ring.) Double check against your hand as you go to make sure it's the right length. (You can use a sharpie marker to mark length as you go. It will be covered by beads and not show in the final project.) Lock the end of each strand with a bead like from the ring shape to keep the beads from falling off the end while you are working.

Twist the two beaded strands together, giving a couple tights twists to combine them together at the end of the beads. Attach one or two of the larger seed beads down over the two pieces of wire and over the twists attaching the two strands. 'Lock' in place like with the other 'joints' to secure beads, shape, and to make it easier to work the next step.

Bead each individual wire from here to create the sides of the bracelet, using desired pattern. You want each of the sides to be about the same size so the latch is located on the central bottom part of the wrist when worn. Measure as you go. Counting and/or marking with a Sharpie to help. Always check, double check, and triple check as you go.

'Lock' the final bead like with the other transitions. (This strengthens the piece for wearing and makes things much easier to work with.) Attach the clasps to the wire, twisting securely with a pair of needle nose pliers, making sure to be mindful of sharp ends of the wire. You can use a short piece of chain on the end of one if desired to make the size adaptable or to give some extra length. (I used a short piece of chain for one and a small ring for the other.)

You can use any selection of colors of your choosing to create whatever design moves you. I love the contrast of water/air with fire. It's hard to say what they will get worn with, but I'm sure I will find something. (I always do!) I do know I love the look of this style and should have no problem finding ways to show them off.

Fire

Rain Stick

"Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day." At least that was the rhyme from when we were kids were stuck inside because of rain. The Rain Stick was made at summer camp, something that was done with older kids and smaller groups.

A rain stick makes the sound of rain using a tube with nails hammered into it and filled with assorted beads, seeds, & pebbles that run down across the nails to make the sound. Then decorated with any assortment of paint, sand, yarn, feathers, and beads. It can be a very soothing sound.

Hippy Themed Chess Set

A Hippy Themed Chess Set

There is something that sometimes happens when one is working and living at a camp, depending on living arrangements... a lot of quiet time. This was especially true one summer when I was living at a camp in which I had a cabin to myself and my little dog (much of the staff actually had dogs that lives with them on site). I was living in the middle on nowhere, surrounded by an on-site staff that had a lot of range in ages, with no cable, no Internet, and limited cell reception (which usually resembled me on a hill trying to find the right spot to get the best service and resembling a cell phone commercial). I wrote, I watched moved on my portable DVD player, I cooked, I took walks, I hung out with staff, and I found ways to keep my hands busy (I'm the type of person who usually can;t just watch tv, I have to have my hands busy doing something). Over this summer I took various crafting projects, including designing and creating my own themed chess set.

King, Queen, Bishop

I grew up playing chess as a kid and over the years have seen a ton of themed chess sets from King Arthur to 'Gone With the Wind' to 'The Simpsons.' What I had never seen was a 60's Hippy theme. (Maybe there is another one out there, but I hadn't seen it.) I thought about carving the pieces, but my limited carving background includes a nativity scene I carved one year out of bards of soap and pretty much nothing else. I'm not afraid of new challenged, but that is a big one to take on involving a knife and limits on how to fix ut ohs. I decided on sculpting it. While I didn't have a lot of experience here either, I knew if something wasn't turning out the way I liked I could always smash it back into a ball and start over. 

For more on these board: http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/handmade-clay-hippy-themed-chess-set

I brainstormed tons of ideas for the pieces, including making a few phone calls to friends for ideas. I had some interesting feedback, but some seemed way too complicated for my limited sculpting background (Like Paul McCartney as a knight or a gun with daisy hanging out the end) & I still wanted to keep this accessible to my abilities. After a few trial attempts with clay I decided on the pieces and set out with some white Sculpty Clay to create the entire set over a few evenings in my cabin. (While I did not have a full kitchen, preparing most meals in a communal kitchen across the way, I did have a toaster oven in my cabin that I could bake the pieces.) Each piece was hand sculpted, baked, and painted. Instead of going with a tradition black/white theme I chose a fire/water theme with a marbled/tie dye appearance with flesh tones as needed. The board was made from a scrap of something leftover from some house renovation and painted with the same color theme. Once painted (acrylic paint was used for this project) and dry the pieces where sprayed with an acrylic sealer and let dry again.



The finished set got a lot of attention from some of the staff who had seen them drying or being worked on and a few campers. There was a teen girl who wanted to learn how to play chess after seeing them and I was ready to teach her, unfortunately schedules just did not work before she headed home. Hopefully, her desire to learn led her to someone else who could teach her.

For interested parties the pieces were as follows:
King - A long haired hippy male complete with head band, outstretched arms, bell bottoms, a beard, and a peace sign on his shirt.
Queen - a long haired hippy mama with flowing hair, a long flowing dress, headband, and outstretched arms.
Bishop - A shaman themed old man with long flowing beard and hair. (I fought the urge to put a joint hanging out of his mouth.)
Knight - My version of a VW bug. (This was really probably one of the hardest pieces for me to make.)
Rook - A psychedelic mushroom. (These probably turned out the coolest.)
Pawn - a dove (and boy did I make a lot of these).

For More Information About Chess


For instructions on how to play:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_of_chess
http://www.chessguru.net/
-OR- find do a simple internet search
-OR- find a friend or relative who can teach you.