My Craft Room: Arty Abacus

By DIY Maven

What, you might ask, does an abacus have to do with a craft room? Nothing, really. If any ciphering is going on in there, it’s on a calculator. But I digress. The abacus idea came from a basket of antique spools. I knew I wanted to display them more prominently in my new craft space, but how? String them, letting them dangle from someplace? Naw. Some sort of peg board display dealy-bob? Nope. It finally came to me last weekend. An abacus!

MWT started by ripping down two scrap pieces of 3/4" oak to 2" x 17". Next he drilled six 1/4" holes evenly spaced on one side of each of the scrap pieces. We dry-fitted six 36" oak dowels, purchased at the big box store for about 50 cents a piece. MWT sanded the individual pieces up and then, to set the wood off on my blue walls, I decided to apply a pickling gel to them.

When the pieces were dry, I slipped the spools on the dowels and fitted them into the side pieces.

If you don’t have a hundred antique wooden spools laying around, this could work with large beads or whatever else you can find with a hole in the center. If you made the side pieces wider, you could even string old CDs for a funky ancient technology meets modern technology art piece.

Tomorrow’s post: the completed room...finally.

Tagged:
craftroom art abacus recycle Reuse

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May 16, 2007

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baconthecat

July 25, 2007

Nifty! For some reason, I also think this would be great in a child's room (I have kids on the mind... Hm!!! *alert*)! Teach them how to count using an abacus... Heh! At school, for a short-lived period, they wanted to teach us how to use an abacus... God those things were confusing!

jasimar

May 24, 2007

I think it's really pretty, but if I were to do this I would use tension wire things to keep the line from sagging in the middle. A brace would interrupt good abacus flow, though.