Epsom Salts

A few months ago I acquired a single skein of Noro Silk Garden Lite in pinks, greys and purples. I decided to make a bowl and felt it. I could display pretty things in a pretty bowl. This seemed like a better idea than a hat that I wouldn't wear.

Here is the bowl:


what I didn't count on was Silk Garden not felting. There's too much silk and too little wool, then combined with my cold-water-only washing machine, I was hooped. Basically instead of getting smaller and stiff, I got a larger and floppy bowl.



This sat on my craft table for a few weeks. had thoughts of starching it but there was no starch in my house. I could have bought starch, but food and more yarn ranked higher on my priority list.
But then Ravelry came to my rescue. There were other things you could use instead of starch to stiffen projects.

1. White glue and water. Con: Can go yellow. Didn't have glue in house.
2. Sugar and water. Con: can attract bus and critters.

But the one I used was Epsom Salts! I had a tons of these because they are great to put in the bath to relieve sore and tired muscles, or mixed with a skin friendly oil as a body scrub. Wiithin 10 minutes I was boiling 6 cups of water and 6 cups of epsom salts.


While this was happening I covered a tupperware container with plastic bags and saran wrap to make a properly sized and shaped form for the bowl to dry on. I placed it on a tray covered in was paper.


Once the mixture boiled for a few minutes, I took it off the burner and let it cool down. Once it was cool enough to put my hand in, I put the bowl in the mixture until it was soaked through. The wet bowl then went onto my mold and dried overnight.

The next morning the bowl was dry and kind of firm. It could have held small ad light stuff but nothing too heavy. But by 2 days later it was completely hardened. I filled it with stray lip glosses, eye shadows and bobby pins, and placed it centrally in my room.



Overall I am really happy with this method and would definitely use it again. The drying process does take a few days, but the boiling part is really quite quick. It's also cheap and gives me another use for something I always keep in the house anyway. I had a few crystals on the rim of the bowl but they were easy to dab off with a wet cloth. I keep think of the possibilities of lace bowls, and anything that gets me thinking of a next project is a definite winner.