Clothespin Creatures and Peg People

Inspired by the Instagram account of Merrilee Liddiard, I decided to use more of my clothespins and make some butterflies or moths with my grandchildren. I flattened cardboard tubes (the flattering name for toilet paper roll innards) and put out tempera paint and pipe cleaners. My oldest granddaughter made one she described as a pink cow butterfly.

And I made one for each of my Spring trees.

After attending a workshop at the Swedish American Museum on Easter crafts and traditions I was inspired to make some Swedish Easter witches or Pask Karringar. A handout from the workshop explained: In Sweden on Easter Thursday girls dress up as witches in colorful skirts and headscarves and go door to door carrying brooms and copper kettles begging for sweets in exchange for handmade cards. This recalls the folk belief that at Easter witches flew off to Blakulla or Blue Mountain to convene with the Devil. I had read about this tradition before and had read that the girls also painted red circles on their cheeks and I had saved a photograph of a a Swedish girl and some vintage postcards to Pinterest.

I was lucky enough to find the perfect copper tea kettle and some brooms at Michael’s and made a grown up clothespin witch flying off to Blakulla and a little peg girl heading off to beg for treats.

After my Chicago niece sent me a picture of my great nephew incorporating the elves I made him for Christmas into a highway scene and captioned it, “The elves have become construction workers”, I decided to make him a set of construction workers for his birthday. And then when the firetruck invitation to his party arrived I made a couple of fire fighters as well.

After I finished painting them I was appalled when I realized I had made them all exactly the same and wished I’d stained a few of them darker or at least given them different hair colors. “It was like you were on an assembly line”, noted my daughter or “like you were making favors,” according to my niece.

I have been trying to embrace something my husband said to to me when I was being critical of some of these creations. “You can’t expect things to come out perfectly the first time you make them. You’re learning how to do them.” A lesson you think I would have learned before now!