Stemming From Disaster...

Does this happen at your house as often as it does at Chez Ginger?  It seems to happen a lot around here- not sure if that is due to Miss G's exquisitely delicate stemware her her stupendously clumsy nature, but rarely a week goes by that we don't end up with a fallen soldier! Luckily, in her never-ending quest to transform all trash to treasure, Miss Ginger has found a way to rescue some of these casualties! 

For her first makeover, Miss Ginger is going to attempt a "full restoration", and for that, she is going to need a stem donor. Luckily, there are plenty of those around, as well.  Before she can attempt the reattachment, however, she has to get rid of the lifeless stump left from the severed bowl...

so, using her rotary tool with surgical precision, she amputates the dead bowl, leaving a perfect stem in place.


Of course, a "makeover" has to leave the subject better than before, so a little bit of embellishment is in order. 

Miss Ginger chose an understated wooden accent for this makeover (because she had a big ole box of wooden beads handy!) but you could use any type of decorative bead to make your rescued stem as glitzy and bejeweled as you like! Just make sure that the hole in the bead accommodates the stem snuggly.  A wooden bead is easy because you can ream out the hole with your Dremel to get the proper fit. This glass with a wooden bead will need to be hand washed, but if you use a ceramic, glass, or plastic bead with epoxy adhesive, your glass should be dishwasher safe!  After her next rowdy dinner party, Miss Ginger will have enough raw materials on hand to make a beaded service for 12! 

Here's another use for a bowl that has outlived it's stem... a clever keepsake cloche to display your favorite tiny treasures!  Just trim the stem, glue on a bead for a "knob", and cap the hole with wooden finial or another bead.

In this version, Miss G used a champagne cork as the knob, by drilling a hole in the cork and gluing it on. What could be easier?  This one's her favorite, and it highlights one of her favorite keepsakes, so now that the crafts are finished, she's going to bore you with that story! 

First, you must know, is is not a tiny wineglass- those dice are much larger than standard.   When Boy G was a wee lad, he and his older brothers loved to visit Aunt Nen and Uncle George's house- the photo in the background was taken in 1927, around the time of their marriage.  Uncle George passed away before Baby G was born, but he was an honorable namesake, and there were many stories told about his exciting life! Aunt Nen and Uncle George lived all over the world, and collected all kinds of neat treasures, like the ivory elephant and these oversized dice.  None of us are sure where the dice were acquired, but they are nonetheless significant to our childhood.

The dice always sat on a little shelving unit that Uncle George had built, right inside Aunt Nen's backdoor, in the library. Yes, she had an actual library in her house, that Uncle George built out with cypress bookcases and a neat little nook for the phone.  Along the edges of all the shelves, in front of the books, were hundreds of tiny knick knacks and bricabracs they had collected over the years.  So, the dice sat there on a shelf by the back door, unnoticed by most, but there was a "special code" for us!  Whenever we went to visit Aunt Nen, we always checked to make sure the dice were set to rest on "7" or "11", and we always switched the numbers on our way out the door when we left.  That way, we knew if anybody else had been there and messed with her stuff! Kind of dumb, really, but to this day, they sit on my shelf at "7" or "11". Unless Celia has dusted... then I have to fix it!