Posts Tagged ‘crafts’

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Are Free Woodworking Plans Worth It?

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

If you are going to create a stick of furniture, especially if it is fairly complicated or you have never made anything like it before, it is a good idea to get a set of wood working plans. These furniture plans are not dear and free woodworking plans can be found too.

However, it is prudent to be wary of free wood working plans as they may not be accurate and you will have little recourse to complain if they were free or even pirated. Free wood working plans could be fine, but you do not want to find out that they are not half way through the task.

A good set of wood working plans, free or not, will give a clear exploded view of the object to be made and a narrative explaining the different steps and procedures. The plans may also make suggestions about the timber and tools to use, the length of time it could take to make in man hours and the difficulty level.

If you want a large collection of wood working plans, there are CD’s around which have 14,000 on them for $30-40. They are a good bargain. Other places you could look are online forums, the library and craft or DIY shops. Shops are almost certainly the dearest alternative.

Once you have chosen an object to make, you should think about which design you would like. A kitchen cupboard could be hardwood or softwood. It could be a Welsh dresser or a Scandinavian design. It could be modern, traditional, Georgian or Victorian, to name but a few.

Once you have answered these questions you can go searching for your wood working plans. You might be lucky or you may have to find the middle ground if you cannot find exactly what you fancy. This is why I think that it is better to buy a CD of plans that have been sorted into a database, so that you can easily find out what is available in your collection.

You could search for ‘kitchen cupboard’ and 100 woodworking plans might recommend themselves to you. Or you could type in ‘Victorian Welsh Dresser’ and only get two suggestions. The point is that you will not be wasting your time chasing a pipe dream, when there are no plans available for the exact item you are looking for.

When you have a set of suitable plans, I think that it is better to get them blown up, or maybe that is just because of my eyesight. However, it is a nuisance to have to take off your safety goggles to put on your spectacles every time you need to check a size. This is easy from a CD because the majority of printers have a capability to print poster size. If yours does not, take the CD to a printer’s, an architect’s or a technical office. They will be able to print A1 directly from the CC.

Then you can affix this enlarged wood working plan to the wall or an easel and you are all set to start making your furniture in style.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with a favourite subject, wood furniture plans. If you are interested in Desk Woodworking Plans, please click through to our site, where we have 14,000 wood working plans.

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Wooden Garden Furniture As A Long Term Project

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

What do you do when you get a bit of extra time on your hands? If you are an outdoor person, that could be when the winter comes and the nights draw in or otherwise it could be in the summer when the days are longer, depending on the kind of person you are. In either instance, do you look for a project to fill your time? A lot of wood workers do. They look for a long term wood working project.

Working out your next long term wood working project is not at all hard if you have a garden. There is always something to be added or renewed in a garden. Maintenance is never over.

If you want a long term wood working project for indoors, then I suggest a dining table with eight matching chairs or, if you are very skilled and painstaking, an ornate display cabinet.

However, getting back to our medium level, long term wood working project of wooden garden furniture. Hardwood garden furniture is the best because it will last longer than softwoods such as pine, if it is well maintained.

However, timber like Red Wood, Mahogany, Maple, Oak and particularly Teak are very costly, because their source is restricted in many areas of the world.

Therefore, the first thing to do when searching for a long term wood working project, is to decide what sort of timber you can afford to use. Then, when you have the finances ready and know of a stock of the wood you want, you can get a good set of wood working plans for that job. You can get these plans from a hobbyist or craft shop, a DIY store or online at a specialist Internet web site.

The wood working plans will probably give you an indication of how much timber you will need, but if it does not, then you will need to work it out from the exploded diagram and the dimensions on the drawings. This is not difficult, just a little time-consuming.

The plans might also suggest which nails, screws, glues and tools you will need to have at your disposal before you begin. I think that it is better to have everything in one place, before you start, with the exception of any glass you may need.

It is also a good suggestion to make sure that you have all the tools necessary for the job and that your tools are in good working order. The saws must be set well and sharp; chisels should be of the right size and sharp as should be the planer and the router.

Put a new blade in your knife as well and check your supply of sandpaper in the various grades. You should also have preservative on hand to treat those cut ends and seal the backs of everything.

It is a real gift that most people would like to have: the ability to select a long term wood working project, stay with it and produce a beautiful, unique set of fine wooden garden furniture that will last your family for decades.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with a favourite subject, bench woodworking plans. If you are interested in Desk Woodworking Plans, please click through to our site, where we have 14,000 wood working plans.

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Woodworking Projects – Decking

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

Timber, or wood, is still the first preference for furniture and other home and garden projects like decking. However, there is a large variety of sorts of timber to select from. The first alternative is whether you will use hardwood or softwood. Hardwood is a lot more expensive, but it will not decay as quickly as softwood.

Both hardwood and softwood are attractive or can be made to look attractive with a suitable finish. Softwood generally takes more looking after, but can last just as long as hardwood, if it is sealed properly. If you want to paint the wood, then softwood is the better choice, because hardwood does not permit paint to soak in very well, but it will take staining, oiling and thin varnishing.

Once you have decided which type of timber you are going to use, you can think about which variety you want to use. If you are going to use hardwood, you have many alternatives, such as teak, mahogany or oak et cetera. If you choose softwood the most common timber used is pine. Whichever you eventually use, select each length of timber with care. You do not want warped, curved lengths of timber or lengths with an unwarranted number of knots in it. A good carpenter will inspect each length individually.

Then you will need something to hold the decking down. Nails or screws? Screws are almost certainly best because they will not come loose if the timber dries out. If you are using softwood, it will be OK to use stainless steel screws, but if you are using expensive hardwood, then I would use brass screws.

You will probably need three inch screws and they should be neatly countersunk, so that the screw’s head is just below the surface of the wood. You can then plug it or not. Yes with steel screws, not with brass screws, but it is really up to your personal preference.

Prepare the area before you start. It is almost certainly best to use a concrete or slabbed base. This should be level and above the normal flow of rain water in your garden. If it does get wet, as when you wash it down, the water should fall through the boards and then flow away. You do not want it to stay under the decking so that mosquitoes can breed in it.

It is not difficult to lay a wooden deck, but it a good idea to obtain a set of decking plans to work by. They will make certain that you do not miss a stage. They will also give you good advice and tips about which materials to use and how to finish your deck so that it does not rot quickly.

Once you have laid your own decking according to the plans, you could put an advert in the local paper and hire your services out to neighbours and locals. Everybody loves the idea of lounging out on their deck or porch in the evening and once you become a regular customer at the builders’ merchant or lumber yard, you may qualify for substantial discounts on materials, which will make your pricing more competitive.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with a favourite subject, wood furniture plans. If you are interested in Desk Woodworking Plans, please click through to our website, where we have 14,000 wood working plans.

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Selecting Home Decorating Fabric

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

If you want to redecorate, you should be thinking about the textiles that you will use in your redecorating scheme. There are quite a few fabrics that can play a function in a redecoration project, such as carpets, some wall papers, such as flock, furnishings, cushions, lamp shades and wall hangings like tapestries and embroideries.

You can use the fabrics in these objects to create a decoration theme more than any other set of objects. You can buy old furniture, but it is expensive, you can buy old paintings, but they are costly, but fabrics can be new yet still convey different atmospheres for little money. Think about the fabrics and colours that you would need to express primitive, Eastern, Hispanic, Victorian or contemporary themes.

Let’s say that you would like to decorate your home in a Victorian style. It is the case that it would be right to have some old furniture, but what will definitely make the style scream ‘Victorian’ is the textiles. You have to think of Victorian houses: they were fairly substantial (unless you would like to live in a hovel), and they were drafty.

This meant that the textiles were heavy to hold back drafts. You could hang flock wallpaper, have weighty, lined curtains, lamp shades with tassels and heavy bedding with a real eiderdown or patchwork quilt.

The funny thing is that although Victorian textiles were very weighty, they tried to make them look very feminine, or perhaps that was why they tried to make them look more feminine. However, men provided the wages and women ran the home in those days, so that might be why too.

Therefore, there were lace edgings, lace trims, tassels, beading, velvet and brocade. Embroidery exam pieces can sometimes be picked up quite cheaply , but they are frequently handed down through families too.

A contemporary style or theme would have lots of bright and frequently contrasting colours. An extreme variation of contemporary style is minimalist with plenty of black and white but with perhaps one splash of yellow in a corner somewhere. This style can be hard to achieve, can be unnerving, but can be dazzling too. It is reminiscent of the Sixties.

Some people endeavor to recreate an Eastern or Oriental style, but you have to be wary because otherwise you will end up with something that no Easterner would recognize. A bit like Charlie Chan and western style curries. You will be told to use pictures and figurines of elephants, tigers, dragons, carp and geese or ducks. This is all very well if you want to persuade your Western friends that you have an Oriental theme of decoration, but not many Orientals would recognize it.

It is very difficult to get this theme looking authentic unless you are from the Far East or you get an Easterner in to assist you. Jades and silks could form a part of this styles along with some figurines. Be very wary of attempting to imitate a style you know nothing of.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a number of subjects, but is now concerned with the waterproof mattress pads. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Egg Crate Mattress Pad For Sale.

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What Popular Wood Working Projects Are There?

Friday, July 1st, 2011

If you are a hobbyist who would like to begin making items from wood, you may be wondering which wood working projects to try. Of course, the type of wood working projects you pick will depend on your level of skill, but there are so many items that can be made in wood at home, that you never need to be stuck for ideas, whatever level of expertise you are currently at.

Popular home wood working projects include clothes hangers, bird tables, wine racks, garden furniture and interior furniture like shelving, cupboards and display cabinets. Even teenagers can start to learn on simple projects building up their ability gradually. If you go for popular wood working projects, you will have no problem selling the items you make too.

Wooden items for home and garden use are traditional and hard-wearing. People value them more highly than an item that has been stamped out by a machine or welded together on a production line. This applies even to something as straightforward as a swing seat. Everyone would choose the wooden one, even if it were a little more expensive.

This is especially true of interior furniture like display cabinets. Whoever heard of someone displaying a fine bone china tea set in a metal display cabinet? The very thought of it is ridiculous, isn’t it? So, if you want to decorate your home and garden well, you pick items made of wood and so does everyone else. Consequently, if you want to sell the items you make, choose popular wood working projects.

Hardwood is the best wood to use, but it is the most expensive and sources of many hardwoods are protected. This makes them scarce. Teak is one such hardwood that is scarce and very expensive, but teak furniture is one of the most highly valued by connoisseurs.

Whether you are just starting out or fairly experienced affects the sort of popular wood working projects you ought to embark on. Here are some popular wood working projects placed approximately in order of the expertise level need to complete them.

Garden swing seats always look good hanging from a tree in the garden. They are not hard to make look nice and they sell well. Bird tables go down well too. There are many different designs of bird table to choose from: with a little house or without, with climbing perches or not, with a hole for a bathing bowl or not, etc, etc..

Dog kennels are superb popular wood working projects. Every dog owner wants a kennel for their dog to sit in to shelter from the sun, wind and rain, while it is outside. Dogs come in all different sizes, so you could build your kennels to order and they need not be of hardwood. Garden benches are not too difficult, but you can increase the style by making them more ornate and making them from soft or hardwood.

More competence is generally required to work on popular wood working projects for indoors, but you could start with made-to-measure clothes hangers or mug trees. Curtain rods can be as complex as you like too, but a set of matching curtain rods for a room of house would sell well. Wine racks are popular too.

Going up the scale of skill levels, you could make stools for the breakfast bar and even a kitchen table. Going further up the ladder of popular wood working projects, there would be a dining room table with six or eight matching chairs. The pinnacle of indoor furniture is the intricate, glazed display cabinet. That has to be superb, because people use them to show off their most highly prized items and they are being looked at all the time.

If you are interested in popular wood working projects like these, it is a good idea to acquire a set of woodworking plans for your project from a reputable source.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with a favourite subject, bench woodworking plans. If you are interested in Desk Woodworking Plans, please click through to our site, where we have 14,000 wood working plans.

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The History Of The Cushion

Friday, June 10th, 2011

In American phraseology, the words ‘cushion’ and ‘pillow’ are virtually synonymous, but in the remainder of the English speaking world, a pillow is used on a bed for supporting the head and a cushion is used on elsewhere for supporting other parts of the body. A pillow is usually much larger than a cushion these days.

The cushion and pillow were most likely first used by wealthy Asian men to rest on. They would probably be referred to as throw cushions nowadays. However, we are going back so far in history that dyes and textiles were very expensive, so pillows and cushions were only for the wealthy and the patterns were so intricate that they became pieces of art in themselves.

Needlework became a skilled profession as did weaving. Cushions were large sacks or cases filled with feathers, hair, wool, straw or something equivalent. These days they are more likely to be filled with man-made fibres such as polyester. Down is the most costly filling especially down from the eider duck.

Due to international trade, the idea of the cushion started moving westward and had arrived in Egypt by the time of the Pharaohs. Cushions have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs. By the Middle Ages, cushions were to be seen in all the royal palaces of Europe. Cushions were still regarded as representing wealth.

The cushions of the royal palaces were substantial enough to sit in, a bit like modern beanie bags, and even started replacing traditional chairs. In those days, cushions were very substantial sacks manufactured of leather, many of which had needlework designs on them.

Cushions were also used in churches for the rich to kneel on when saying their prayers. These special but small cushions were known as carreaux because they were square (from the French).

These days cushions are everyday objects because they are much cheaper. Most cushions in the West are 17 inches by 17 inches and the reason for this is the traditional size of a roll or bolt of fabric. A roll of cloth is traditionally 54 inches wide, so it could be cut into three pieces of 18 inches, allowing for seams, this permits the manufacturer to make a 17 inch cushion.

Japanese cushions were much larger and still are, but they have a different role. In the West they are used for support, whereas in the East they are used for sitting on on the floor. In Japanese they are called ‘zabuton’ and measure 20-30 inches square by a few of inches in thickness, which is less than a quarter of the thickness of traditional Western cushions.

Zen meditators will frequently sit on another special cushion called a zafu or meditation cushion, which is placed on top of the zabuton. A zafu can be round or square but is small, frequently just 8-10 inches in diameter and 4-8 inches in thickness.

Zabuton are used in all aspects of Japanese life especially those facets that have religious overtones or traditions such as sumo. Spectators of the sport will sit on zabuton while watching the bouts. If there is a foul or a dispute, spectators often throw their zabuton into the ring in disgust.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a variety of topics, but is now involved with decorative sofa pillows. If you want to know more, please visit our website at Modern Throw Pillows For Sale.

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Electric Blankets

Friday, June 10th, 2011

Have you ever used an electric blanket? Some people are scared of lying on something that is plugged into the national grid and I have to admit that when I think of electric blankets in that manner, they do sound pretty frightening.

However, there are two types of electric blankets: there are those that are meant to stay on all night and there are those that are intended to be switched off and unplugged before you get into bed.

The second sort is of course the one to be suggested for those of a nervous disposition. I have never owned an electric blanket, because my father thought that they were for ‘sissys’, but I have slept in beds that made use of electric blankets.

When I stayed over at my maternal grand-parents’ house or my Aunty Lil’s there was always an electric blanket in the bed. My aunty used a pre-warmer and my grand-parents used the ‘always-on’ variety. As a young boy, I have to say that the ‘always-on’ variety of electric blanket was too warm for me.

However, in those days, in the Sixties, houses were not as draft-proof as they are now and I did not know anyone whose house was centrally heated or double glazed. In fact, everyone that I knew used to put an overcoat on the bed in winter if it got especially cold. It did not cross my mind that that was odd, everyone did it.

The fact is that some people feel the cold more than others and there are many reasons for this ranging from frailty to age and sickness. Another reason for using electric blankets is if it is too expensive to heat the whole house or bedroom. It is always going to be cheaper to heat a bed that it is to heat a bedroom. The cost of pre-heating a double bed is still pennies compared with utilizing an electric fire.

Some people, my wife included, likes to maintain the background temperature in the bedroom cold. OK, cold in Thailand is about 20c, but while we were in the UK, she insisted that we slept with the windows open in winter and it was truly cold. She is not alone in liking to sleep in a warm bed whilst her face is cold. She says that she gets a better night’s sleep in this fashion.

If you or a sick or old relative wants to try an electric blanket, be wary where you get it from. In saying this I mean be wary of purchasing a cheap electric blanket from abroad off eBay in case it is not manufactured to run off the electric supply that you have in your country.

You also have to make sure that the blanket conforms to the health and safety regulations in your country. Electric blankets are safe if you follow basic health and safety rules, but be careful of ‘always-on’ blankets if you eat in bed.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a number of subjects, but is now involved with Personalized Throw Blankets. If you would like to know more, please go along to our website at Woollen Blankets.

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Woodworking School

Friday, May 6th, 2011

Wood is by far the most popular material in the world for home items such as chairs, benches, doors, windows, cabinets, tables, wardrobes and jewellery boxes. Wood is still widely used to make houses in many countries and not even only poor countries either. So it follows that woodworking is one of the most sought after skills in the world as well.

Even though there is always a high demand for items made from wood, there is always a shortage of good wood workers, carpenters and cabinet makers. This makes woodworking in any of its various forms a good trade to go into. Previously, there were shuttering carpenters, joiners, carpenters, ships’ carpenters, furniture makers, cabinet makers and wood workshop workers. These various varieties have melded to a certain extent.

So, what do you do if you want to enter the profession? Well, the traditional course was to become an apprentice to a tradesman, but that practice largely died out in the 1970′s and 1980′s. The route now is more likely to be through school and technical college, together with short term placements in industry until the ‘apprentice’ has passed his or, more and more often nowadays, her, final exams.

There is a lot of competition for jobs in the building industry in the West at the moment, so credentials are fairly essential, although any foreman carpenter knows within fifteen minutes of watching someone working how capable that person is. They can usually tell just by glancing in their tool bag in fact.

At woodworking school, besides being taught how to handle, cut and shape wood, the student will also be taught other subjects such as relevant mathematics, how to identify different timbers, woodworking tools and equipment, how to read woodworking plans and architectural drawings, how to finish wood, such as polishing and varnishing and health and safety.

At woodworking school the student is introduced to the many facets and niche trades of woodworking and it is hoped that the student will show a preference or even an aptitude for one niche over another. This permits the teacher to steer the student down the specific route relevant to that niche and find the student placements within industry relevant to the student’s particular interests.

From this point on, the woodworking class may start to be segmented so that each segment can specialize in its own particular niche. This may not happen until the second or third year of a three or four year course. At this juncture it is worth mentioning that the student should go as far as possible down the path to his or her niche as he/she can.

This is because, on a building site, it is generally recognized that the carpenter is in the most highly educated tradesman on site. It is for this reason that most general foremen are carpenters. Under the general foreman, there may be a foreman bricklayer, a foreman painter et cetera, but the foreman of these foremen is normally a carpenter.

Therefore, other skills will have to be learned too. Once the student has left school and found a job, it is worth still going to night classes or asking the boss if there is a day release scheme to continue education. If being foreman is an aim, then you will require a good command of language in order to liaise with customers, fellow workers and management.

You will need people skills as well and an ability to read plans and drawings and understand the financial aspects of a job. You will also have to be able to handle rude clients and grumpy bosses and learn what you can and what you cannot do to discipline late or lazy workers.

They may teach some of the theory of these subjects in woodworking school, but not as much as you will learn on site. Once you have learned the essentials of how a real site works, then you can go back to night school to learn the finer points. In woodworking, as in all professions, you never know enough so you must always keep learning.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with a favourite subject, wine rack plans. If you are interested in Desk Woodworking Plans, please click through to our site, where we have 14,000 wood working plans.

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Famous British Caricaturists – Part One

Friday, May 6th, 2011

This list includes both British born artists and those who were born elsewhere but did most of their most important work in the U.K. The selection is listed in chronological order by date of birth.

William Hogarth (1697 – 1764)

He was born in London and apprenticed to an engraver where he learned his trade. He became a painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist and has been accredited with pioneering sequential art or the cartoon strip.

His output ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures known as “contemporary moral subjects”. His most famous works are no doubt ? The Harlot?s Progress and ?The Rake?s Progress?.

Isaac Cruickshank ( 1756 ? 1811)

Cruickshank was a Scottish painter and caricaturist who was born in Edinburgh. Cruikshank’s first known publications were etchings of Edinburgh “types”, from 1784.

His water colours were exhibited, but in order to make a living it was found that it was more profitable to produce prints and caricatures. He was responsible in part for creating the figure of John Bull, the nationalistic representation of a solid British yeoman.

Isaac Cruikshank was a contemporary of James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson, and he was part of what has been known as “the Golden Age of British Caricature.

Thomas Rowlandson ( 1756 – 1827)

Thomas Rowlandson was an English painter and caricaturist. He was born in London and after he left school he was educated at the Royal Academy. He was thought of as a promising student and if he had continued his early diligence he would have made his mark as an artist.

But he inherited ?7,000 from a French aunt and plunged into the distractions of the town (he was known to sit at the gambling-table for 36 hours at a stretch).

He soon wasted his inheritance but the friendship and examples of James Gillray and Henry William Bunbury seem to have recommended caricature as a way of filling his stomach and purse.

He also created a collection of erotic prints and woodcuts, lots of which would these days be thought of as pornographic .

James Gillray (1757 – 1815)

James Gillray was a British caricaturist and printmaker who gained great fame for his etched political and social satires, mainly in print between 1792 and 1810.

Some of his most well known caricatures were directed at the Royal Family and George III in particular. He is also accountable for probably the most famous political cartoon of all time.

It was entitled ?The Plum Pudding in Danger? . It was printed in 1805 and depicts Pitt and Napoleon carving up the plum pudding of Europe.

By 1811, madness, no doubt made worse by his intemperate life-style, was overtaking him and he passed away in 1815.

George Cruickshank ( 1792 – 1878)

George Cruickshank was born in London, the son of the famous caricaturist Isaac Cruickshank and started his working career as apprentice to his father.

He later started out as a caricaturist in his own right and was even paid ?100 in return for a promise not to satirize George IV In later life he turned to book illustrating and illustrated ?Sketches by Boz? and ?Oliver Twist? for Charles Dickens.

After developing palsy he died in 1878. Punch in his obituary said ?There never was a purer, simpler, more straightforward or altogether more blameless man. His nature had something childlike in its transparency.”

If you would like one of our unique, hand-painted, custom cartoons or caricatures from photos supplied by you please click on one of these links History Of Rugby. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Custom Cartoons.

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Have Fun With A Toy Hobby

Sunday, May 1st, 2011

Someone who has a toy hobby is normally an adult. After all, all children collect toys – the more the merrier for them, but a person who has a toy hobby normally collects one type of toy – like, say, train sets or a precise maker of train set. These adults retain their childhood fascination with fantasy. They are not childish, but are childlike when they begin talking on the topic of or playing with their favourite toys.

Some toy hobbyists like to share their hobby with children, often grandparents come into this group, and some toy hobbyists do not, frequently single men who are scared that children may damage their frequently valuable collection.

These collections of toys can be very valuable, because toy hobbyists tend to collect the toys from their youth, so a grandparent is mostly collecting toys from fifty or sixty years ago.

A favourite toy hobby for women is collecting antique dolls or dolls from other countries. Occasionally this interest in dolls will spill over into an interest for dolls’ prams or dolls’ clothes and they might start to make dolls’ clothes and even their own garments. Some women and some men too get into making dolls and even dolls’ houses.

Rag dolls are a distinct favourite both for the collector and the crafter because they are easy to make and easy to mend. Teddy bears could also be put in the category of dolls. Many homes have a small collection of teddy bears if there have been children brought up there and it is not strange to see hundreds of teddy bears on shelves dotted around a house.

Lots of older men collect train sets or model cars. Hornby, Marxs, Marklin and Lionel come to mind for train sets and Matchbox and Dinky for small but detailed, die cast model cars. Tonka is famous for larger, maybe less detailed, model trucks, but people liked to play with their bulldozers, trucks and earth-movers as children.

More modern toys that have become collectible include Beanie Babies. Beanie Babies are childlike representations of babies. So there are baby kangaroos, baby elephants, in fact babies of every type of animal you can think of and every one has its own distinct personality.

They are not expensive and lovable and there are hundreds of them – just the blend that some collectors desire. Teddy bear collectors frequently have a few Beanie Babies as well.

Other well-liked toy hobbies are flying radio-controlled, powered model aircraft and racing motor-powered radio-controlled cars and trucks. There are also hobbyists that collect or and manufacture radio-controlled boats. Some collectors of radio-controlled aircraft, boats and vehicles might not like being referred to as toy hobbyists, but it is what they are after all.

Wooden toys have always been well-liked as well. A hundred years ago and further, all toys would have been made of wood, particularly those of the working class and there are still a lot of parents and grandparents who like to give or make wooden toys themselves. A toy hobby is a great pastime for those who remember their childhood fondly and never really got out of the habit of playing.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on several topics, but is now concerned with Silver Cross Rocking Horses. If you want to know more, please visit our website at Rocking Horses for sale.

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