Creative handmade drop spindle swap

I love to knit and spin, knit what I spin, would love to spin what I knit, and I used to collect drop spindles. While I love to use my expensive exotic wood "branded" drop spindles, I think it's just as fun or sometimes maybe even more fun to watch my home-made spindles spin ... there's such a rush when you can get it to balance right and spin nice usuable yarn.

More importantly, there's the creative element involved. Creativity can mean so many things. Will you be creative in your choice of spindle materials? You can use wood, polymer clay, stone donuts, glass discs ... anything that is round with a hole in the middle can be a potential drop spindle.

Or perhaps for you creativity means getting a basic wooden toy wheel (an easy option is a toy wheel spindle kit for US$2 at thebellwether.com), and jazzing it up with painting, glitter, beads, even decoupage if you like the idea of pictures but don't paint or draw. I know there are many artists out there, who can embellish a spindle like an ATC. A toy wheel spindle has a slight postal advantage because you can send it flat, and your recipient can assemble the dowel in the whorl herself. Make sure you protect your decorative efforts with several coats of clear sealant.

The typical medium wooden toy wheel produces a 1.6 oz spindle, so I would say, whatever material you use, keep the spindle at about 1.3 oz to 1.8 oz? These would be good beginner's spindles and still produce enough surface area for embellishment. If you want to make a lighter or heavier spindle, for more advanced spinning or for plying, ask your pal for her preferences. Wooden toy wheels can be high or low whorl, I personally find high whorls easier to use but again it will be safer to ask.

This is not an expensive exchange in terms of material costs and postal charges, like I said a toy wooden wheel kit costs $2, and it weights 1.6 oz. So this will be an international exchange and first timers are welcomed. But please message me on how long you have been spinning, whether you have made spindles before, what kind of spindles you might want to make this time, and your blog address if you have one. However if you have previously swapped on swap-bot your rating should be 4.0 or higher.

I think what is cool about this exchange is that it allows you to exercise your creativity, but it really sucks to put in all that effort and get nothing creative (or worse, nothing at all) in return, so please, only join if you want to create a beautiful spindle, it's a chance to let out your inner artist.

Each person will have 2 partners. You make 2 spindles and send 1 to each partner. You can choose to send similar or different spindles, it doesn't matter so long as the spindles are pretty and functional. At the end, you should have 2 new and different spindles to display or use.

I was inspired to start this swap by the Summer Fiber swap Deb is holding. I think Deb was one of my best secret pals. So drop by and join her swap too, then maybe you can use these spindles to spin that fiber! I am allowing two months for maximum creative possibilities. Have fun.