The first order for a magazine rack came through during the covid lockdown. So I decided to hunker down and start working on the rack during the end of June. The client gave me the option of choosing my own colours, so decided to go with a combination of dark and light brown. The light brown was after consultation with Little Miss 😄And I must say I am quite happy with the result.

The base of the rack is made of plywood, and I had drilled holes through the wood. Then it was just a matter of decoupaging paper onto the base, so that the plywood is not visible. The wood base ensured that the magazine rack would be sturdy even if a number of books are placed in it.

I liked the pattern in the lower half of the rack. Would have loved to continue in the top bit too, but I guess that would not have looked that great in the middle. So there, it was a regular weave with 2 tubes of paper.

I must say my weaving skills have improved quite a bit and am quite pleased with the way the magazine holder has turned out. Obviously, there are a few mistakes, but nothing glaringly obvious. And I am sure I would get better with a little more practise. What say?

Overall, this has been a fun bit of work and I am truly grateful that the client trusted me with the whole project. I am also supposed to make a pen holder and a tissue holder that goes along with the rack. I will soon get cracking on that!

This little heart box is my attempt to organise my desktop with a few recycled boxes. For the first one, tried out a heart box. The base is made from cardboard, since I wasn't too sure I would be capable of weaving a heart shaped base!! 😄😄 The heart-shaped cardboard was covered with newspaper that was then painted the same colour as the tubes.

Based on the size of the box, I started with tubes placed at an interval of 1.5 cms. I find this is the ideal placement of tubes. I tried 2 cms distance but I found the weaving to be too spaced out. Smaller distances makes weaving difficult for me! So 1.5 cms it is.

After that, it was a very simple weave with 2 tubes. Finishing off was also pretty easy. Then it was just a matter of glazing the box to give me a really hard and sturdy heart-shaped organiser for my desk.

Model Details:

Model: Heart Shaped Desk Organiser

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Tutorial (making newspaper tubes): Youtube

Tutorial for making the edge: Youtube

Well, a recent order for a pot holder made from newspaper rolls with order to 'go crazy!' gave me the liberty to try out this cute snail pot holder. Since I wanted the newspaper print to be visible, I coloured the paper with print in brown and cream and ended up with a real cute holder.

To hold the snail shape, I threaded the tubes with wire - that meant I was able to shape it well and it also made the weaving a lot easier! Finally 2 too big eyes and a coat of varnish and the holder was ready 😊

Here is the holder with a small pot in it. The picture really does not do justice to how well it turned out! And once the order was complete, I needed to make one more, since Little Miss had fallen in love with it. So the next one I made was smaller and was more of a pen stand. I reused some of the newspaper tubes from another project and ended up with a yellow and purple snail pen holder.

My second attempt at making an oval container has been quite a success, if I do say so myself! My first attempt was the blue box which was not that great, frankly speaking. Naturally, I wanted to retry it, but this time I decided to go with a decoupaged cardboard base. And I wanted a closed box, so decided to try the lid as well.

The decoupage tissue was in orange and grey, with a coffee theme, so I went for the same colour combination for my paper tubes as well. The orange came out very well. The grey was a hit and a miss - it looks a little grey and a little brown!

The style of weaving remains the same as before - a Layer-wise Rope Style Pattern. I used 3 grey tubes followed by an orange tube for a total of 32 tubes. The lid was a basic lid with a little loop to help open it. Finally, I double-glazed the entire thing to make it real hard. In addition to making it hard, it made it a little glossy as well, which I am not too happy about. I prefer a matt finish to a gloss one.