MAKE YOUR OWN LUCET (SPOOL-KNITTER)… and make cool toys, accessories and gifts!  Led by long-time Grace Art Camp Fibre Artist Judee Moonbeam, this episode introduces an ancient art that is still widely practiced today!  The original lucet was a carved wooden tool used during the Middle Ages for making cords and belts. Judee will show you how to make a basic lucet from things around your house. Many enjoy practicing this skill and find it soothing. (It’s great for road trips.) Once you’ve learned the simple technique, you can make all kinds of things, such as toy snakes (great pet toys!), potholders, pet collars, hats, belts, friendship bracelets, gift-wrapping ties…maybe something no one has thought of yet!

Things you will need:

• An empty roll or tube between 3 and 8 inches. You can use a cardboard roll from toilet paper roll, duct tape or ribbon roll — or even a short piece of pvc pipe. 
• Popsicle sticks (at least 4) 
• Tape with a strong hold 
• Scissors and large-eyed needle (or a yarn needle) 
• A pencil, crochet hook, large nail, etc. (Or, fingers work just fine.) 
• Yarn, string, cord, crochet thread, etc. 
• Optional:  things to decorate your lucet – colorful tapes, wrapping paper, trim, etc. 

Judee Moonbeam is a long-time Grace Art Camp Artist, who spent 18 happy years in the Fibre Studio. Judee sold her first piece of wearable art through a small gallery in Old Town, at age 13. Even then, she was inspired by the idea of reclaiming fabrics (cutting up dress-up clothes with Mom’s permission) to create fun garments with printing, dyes and embellishment. With her degree in clothing design, she went to San Francisco, turning down a pattern-making job at Levi Strauss, for design work in a left-hand gift shop. Rather than follow a more focused career in fashion, Judee pursued a variety of successful artistic projects, from creating street banners to custom graduation stoles, fashion shows to accessory lines for retail stores. She sells her one-of-a-kind designs at festivals and galleries. Judee was a founding artist of Last Thursday on Alberta, is a member of the Portland Handweavers’ Guild, and has been a member of Local 14 for more than three decades. Explore her work at www.judeemoonbeam.com.

We are missing our camp family and are still sad about not being able to have Grace Art Camp this summer, so we are busy creating weekly gifts for you!  We call them “Bright Spots” – short videos led by Grace Art Camp artists to inspire creative fun for you and your families. Look for a new episode each Wednesday through late August.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel – it helps us get ‘extras’ such as hot-linked buttons.  And please tag and share your creations with us @graceartcamps 

To help us produce this fun, short, online content as a weekly gift to our families, please consider donating to the Grace Art Camp Summer 2020 Creativity Fund.  Visit our Contribute page to donate to the Creativity Fund. Thank you so much!