By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Betty Tkachenko wields a glue gun as she assembles
a gift basket at the Liliha Library craft workshop.
Crafts in hand
Free demonstrations
By Catherine Kekoa Enomoto
point the way to creating holiday gifts,
decorations and treatsStar-Bulletin
If the craft projects were awarded prizes, Beatrice Kaneshiro's patchwork dog pillow would win the "soft-and-cuddly" award. The colorful canine -- which took 60 three-inch squares of leftover fabrics, a sewing machine and polyester fiberfill to make -- was the hit of the annual holiday-idea workshops that began last week. Family & Community Education (FCE) clubs under the University of Hawaii Cooperative Extension Service host the free series.
"At times people leave a needle inside the pillow," said demonstrator Kaneshiro, matriarch of the Kaneshiros who founded Columbia Inn.
"I think I may have" left one inside, she said, drawing chuckles from the audience of 53, including two men.
By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
The award for "cutest" would have gone to a tabletop mutt made of kamani nuts and a used golf tee, demonstrated by Violet Yamada. She said the nuts are available for the picking around Blaisdell Center, along Dillingham Boulevard by Honolulu Community College and by the UH parking structure.FCE clubs, which celebrate a half-century in Hawaii in 1999, focus on family and frugality. So the four-year program of holiday craft sessions dispenses ideas on creating holiday pins, ornaments, packaging and desserts using simple, household items -- such as needle, thread, fabric, rickrack, beads, buttons, cake mixes and canned fruits.
The only extras crafters might not have around the homestead are lots of "moving eyes," tiny yarn pompoms for noses, pipe cleaners, the ubiquitous red and green felt and a glue gun.
"Don't throw away anything," said Betty Tkatchenko, mistress of ceremonies at Liliha Library Thursday. "Save all your scraps. Look at what you can make. You don't have to go to the store."
Doris Correira demonstrated a decorative lined basket, which would have won a "most useful" award for holding gift jams, candies or pencils.
By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
A wealth of holiday goodies can be assembled
with simple household items.
Correira and Rhoda Yoshino teamed to demonstrate a handkerchief angel, a "most simple" awardee for transforming any seven- to 12-inch hankie or fabric square into an angel.The "Now, I can do that" award would go to Jackie Ho's green felt Christmas tree decorated with rickrack, gold buttons and sequins. The finished product was wrapping for a gift bottle of wine.
And, the "Guess what? No glue" award would go to a Santa lapel pin or ornament made of large-looped chenille twined into a face and decorated with eyeglasses made from scrap phone wire.
Another great idea was to recycle burned-out Christmas tree lights into reindeer or Santa pins and ornaments using those "moving eyes," bits of felt fabric and pipe cleaners.
The eight demonstrators showed how to make a dozen holiday crafts and desserts, gave away door prizes and offered samples -- all in an hour. The same program repeats at all workshops.
"They talk slow, but there's a good pace and rhythm," Cooperative Extension specialist Yoshino said of the demonstrators. "People can ask questions afterward and look at the crafts."
The Kalihi-Kai, Liliha and Nuuanu FCE clubs hosted Thursday's session.
Sixty-five clubs with 735 members are active on all islands, except Lanai. Participation peaked in the 1950s peak with 200 clubs and 3,000 members, Yoshino said.
With 10 weeks till Christmas, the spotlight is on simple pleasures -- those of giving and receiving handmade gifts.
Crafty sessions
What: Christmas ideas demonstrations
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