Have reindeer - need sleigh, so here goes.… I stole some bits of balsa wood from my husband’s stash in the garage to create the basic outer shape and a seat for my princess. It started out a little crude, but I think I eventually managed to wrangle it into a fairly cute and sturdy sleigh!
Here’s the rough start - I’m not much of a woodworker as you can see!
A princess requires comfort on her journey so I made some lovely wool upholstery for the seat.
I was going to use some bark or other natural materials to decorate the sleigh, but it didn’t work so I just painted it white. However, even several coats of paint could not hide the ugly surface of the balsa wood so I tried some folksy decoration based on some ribbon I have. That did the trick and made it look fun and pretty.
Here’s how I made the sleigh skis. I used tongue depressors which I soaked in hot water until they were bendable. Then I clipped them around a mug and let them dry. Voila! Sleigh Skis!
Plenty of room in the back of the sleigh for all the stuff a princess would take on an adventure. The netting to hold everything securely on the back of the sleigh is an old mandarin mesh bag. (finally a use for some trash that has been in my painting/collage stash for years…!)
Knowing that my princess would need to take some essentials on her journey, I began creating/finding some useful items for her. (For scale the walking stick at the bottom of the picture is 10” long)
The little storage box I already had from a wooden stagecoach kit, I painted it to match the sleigh. I had some huge acorn caps of different shapes and these make ideal little storage/serving items. I found a perfectly shaped piece of seashell to make a handy knife and just added a sculpey clay handle. The fish I made out of sculpey clay and painted. I made a fishing spear is also made from sculpey. The walking stick is just a painted twig embellished with beads and a tiny bell. You can probably tell that I am having so much fun with all these teeny tiny objects, and still thinking of other things to make….!
Finally, I had to create a harness for my reindeer so that she can pull the sleigh. For this I had several bits of ribbon, and a long length of super skinny leather cord. It was a challenge to form the harness and I used both sewing and gluing to piece it together. The tiny metal rings came from my beading stash, as did the bell, and the metal clasps holding the cross straps on. Sewing those minuscule 1/4” rings onto the leather was such a trial, but I was so pleased with the result it was worth the headache.
I bought some neodymium magnets to see if they will make good closures for tiny clothes etc. Neodymium magnets are the strongest permanent magnets you can get. As you can see above they come in really tiny sizes, this column of 18 individual disc magnets is just over half an inch. Can they be glued onto cloth, that is the important question?
The answer is Yes! The magnets glue pretty well to cloth. They provide a good way to hold two strips of fabric together - here making my reindeer harness completely removable. I did buy some self adhesive magnets, but found they are only useful on paper as the adhesive is not very sticky.
Well, things are coming on apace for my story. I am busy making my princess, and in the meantime Grandmother Zuri is having fun driving the sleigh. Uh oh, not sure if she has a license for that - Serac the reindeer looks a little peturbed!