Strange craft kits from the 70s

[Throughhistory]

Anyone else remember them?

Plasticraft - I mean who doesn't want to make a penny embedded in a plastic blob?

Enamelcraft - at least that resulted in a few hardly wearable items of jewellery

A board covered in black velvet. You banged small nails in, then wound gold thread from one nail to another to create the illusion of curves in a picture, often a boat. Yes really.

Did I miss out on any gems?

Something has just come back to me!

Infants school, circa 1966-67. Back then, supermarket meat came in shallow polystyrene trays, with dimples on the bottom.

They were washed, then we filled them with plaster of Paris, draping a loop of ribbon at the top end.

Once they'd dried, they were taken out of their makeshift mold; we painted them with that powdered paint we had back then, then we cut out a Xmas scene from an old Xmas card, that was stuck on with Gloy Glue, often with some glitter, then we also stuck on a small calendar, one where you ripped off each month.

The whole shebang was sold to our mums at the Christmas Bazaar so she could be charmed for a whole year! 😂

@Dilbertian - I was never a patient child, nor was I a coordinated one. My mother was never as enthusiastically grateful as I was when I received crafty presents... wonder why?

I do remember making “God’s Eyes” by wrapping different coloured yarn endlessly around two crossed sticks, basically predating the Blair Witch project....
Hideous

Plaster craft - I had several Beatrix Potter figures. Jemima Puddleduck came out minus her beak because I hadn't filled the mould properly.

I remember getting a tile decoupage kit which flummoxed us all. Dad eventually used the tile to fill an odd shaped gap behind the bathroom sink.

Paper dolls and pages of clothing to cut out and attach to the figures.

I had jemima!

Jemimas beak fell off and mostly Peter Rabbit did not have ears. I loved shaker maker though!

I liked the smell of the pink shaker maker stuff!

@BerniesMittens I recently got my old books out of the loft for DD. This beauty was still there!

I had a bead loom that made long strips of beaded fabric - bookmarks, basically!

And a proper loom for weaving - the whole thing was less than a foot square, as I remember - for scarves, this one!

Not RTFT, but I have a kit for cutting glass bottles and then painting them from the 1970s. Never used it.

@Dilbertian

Look what just arrived!

Penrose rulings! Those are proper maths.

It would be only educational to buy some, wouldn’t it?

Tilings, curse this unmathematical phone

I remember the tv adverts and how I wanted some of the things so much.

[quote inappropriateraspberry]@BerniesMittens I recently got my old books out of the loft for DD. This beauty was still there![/quote]

I had that book! I think I tried to make that cotton reel snake but didn't have enough cotton reels so it was a bit short.

@inappropriateraspberry Your post has reminded me of this book I had as a child. I never attempted the dazzling ensemble on the front cover but I did make some rather dodgy necklaces using wire and pebbles.

There was also a guide to making Op Art earrings out of jam jar lids, but I passed.

Does airfix count? I bazaly had a Henry the 8 th !

I also once borrowed a library book which had crafts based on optical illusions. There were instructions for nailing three long strips of wood together, hanging them up and photographing them at a certain angle so it looked like an impossible triangle (a la MC Esher). I was dying to do this but my dad said it was a 'waste of wood' .

@Throughhistory

There was also a box containing three hollow glass swans, and you made differently coloured water by soaking dyed tissue paper in water and then filling the swans up with the coloured water. (who needs an X-Box, eh?)

Oh my god, I remember them now. Can't remember if I had one or my best friend did.

Just found another kit 'things to make', needless to say it made a raft of completely pointless items

I had that kit and made everything in it. My poor dgps received the items as Xmas presents. I made one of those kits where you weaved strips of paper to make a basket, topped off with a gold foiled rim. My dgm had it in a display cabinet until she died in her 90s. Sadly another relative chucked it when they were sorting the house out.

This really has been a trip down memory lane ... I had:

a child's typewriter
the flower loom - it was either Ktel or Ronco, bought from Woolies
a weaving loom
art straws
candle making kit
pompom kit (to make animals(
macrame
pantograph
the cardboard dolls and paper clothing

Does anybody remember that they bought some of these things from a craft shop in the WHSmith chain? Something like "WHSmith Crafts" - I distinctly remember a branch in Nottingham outside of the Broadmarsh centre ...

I forgot! I also had DoodleArt - the dolls picture.

[quote LApprentiSorcier]@inappropriateraspberry Your post has reminded me of this book I had as a child. I never attempted the dazzling ensemble on the front cover but I did make some rather dodgy necklaces using wire and pebbles.

There was also a guide to making Op Art earrings out of jam jar lids, but I passed.[/quote]
That is truly a collection of things of wonder!

Does anyone else remember Betta-Bilda? I much preferred it to Lego.www.inverso.pt/legos/clones/texts/bettabilda.htm And my sister and I both had Floral Garden sets. Very fiddly, but great fun.www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjR1MjAqc3uAhUM7O0KHf2ZAL4YABAGGgJkZw&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAASEuRozcZWFAHiIYUu2ZRWpuZCQg&sig=AOD64_3l3bmp4f73Re1Aj9l4ANXP0-kWRQ&ctype=5&q=&ved=2ahUKEwj8jsDAqc3uAhWHfMAKHXDnBzwQ9aACegQIBhBC&adurl=

I am a disaster at sewing but for a brief phase in the 80s, I thought I was a mini Coco Chanel, having discovered the wonder that were Clothkits: pre cut, highly patterned pieces that you sewed into ‘eye catching’ fashion pieces. I managed to cobble together some certainly one off pinafores, hats and (most proudly of all) a jungle scene kimono. They didn’t bear close scrutiny but oh did I love that kimono. It survived years and years and even went to university with me - where it was quite a talking point!

Again not a craft kit per se, but who else made beads out of long triangles of Sunday magazines?

Or was it just me

Oh yes! On a knitting needle.

There's charities in Africa that do that, for sale here (truly!)