Carving soapstone

An easy way to carve those little soapstone remnants that some artists sell for $1 at the ferry terminal is with a manicuring tool and bit of sandpaper.

Infusing Oils

The infusion process for creating home-made topicals for aromatherapy, cooking, skin care and pain relief is very easy, as I learned through my own curiosity with my  Cannabalm experiment.

Once you melt a base oil such as coconut using a double-boiler method like a large plastic bowl in a canner full of water kept at simmer after boiling, you add herbs finely ground with mortar and pestle for a couple of hours and then strain the oil into jars through cheesecloth. Voila!

Making play dough

For kids, play dough is a fantastic way to get them spinning their creative wheels and it can be made easily at home. Here is a starter recipe that can be modified to suit.

1. Mix together 1 cup any kind of flour, 1/4 cup salt, and optional 1 TB cream of tartar.
2. Mix together ½ cup of warm water with optional 1 TB vegetable/coconut oil and/or few drops of food coloring/essential oil/glitter.
3. Slowly pour the water into the flour mixture, stirring as you pour until combined, then knead until flour is completely absorbed.
4. If the dough is too sticky add more flour until it doesn’t stick at all.
5. Store in ziplock bags.

Sunburning wood

When you take a magnifying glass and hold it at the right angle with a steady hand so the sunlight passes through, you can create etchings to bring new life into a discarded old pallet that some trucking companies give away curbside. In Nanaimo you can get all sizes and types of pallets at Diamond Delivery on Old Victoria Rd. After the first burning the wood can be sanded and burned again for detail, then varnished.