Simply Thimbles

As well as collecting thimbles, I also have a soft spot for teddy bears.   I have quite a few thimbles with teddies on from my very first thimble: To a few of his friends: I also like to dabble with stitching. Cross stitch mainly with a little bit of quilting and more recently, I’ve even tried a bit of knitting. So you can imagine my delight when not one but two opportunities to overlap collecting thimbles with stitching came along. The first - A cross stitch teapot thimble which cuts across three of my all time favourite things. 1. It’s a thimble. 2. It’s a picture of cross stitch. 3. It’s a teapot. Did I mention that I also have a soft spot for teapots? I have 8 all together so not quite as obsessive as thimbles – yet. ☺ The second - This Japanese Thimble from Chloe Patricia’s site Ma Mercerie. A thimble that you can stitch yourself. How cool is that? This one is the beginner’s level and is my first attempt and is only half finished. The stitching isn’...

Bakelite (pronounced bakerlite) is a heat resistant resin made, in basic terms, by mixing phenol with formaldehyde. Originally used for insulation in electrics its chemical name is polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride and it was invented or discovered by a Belgian chemist called Dr Leo Baekeland back in the early 1900s. Over the years since then it has been used for a whole range of items from telephones, jewellery, door handles, light switches, radios, kitchenware – just about anything that could be made out of a mould. Bakelite has a unique sound. If you tap two pieces of Bakelite together you get a kind of deep, heavy clunk, rather than the slightly faint jingly clink you get with modern plastics. It’s more solid construction also makes it feel heavier than other plastics. You can test for Bakelite with metal polish. If you rub a small area with the polish using a cloth, Bakelite will leave a yellow mark on the cloth. Here is a Bakelite thimble. It is chunky, a bit heavi...

You may remember from a few posts back that I was looking out for Kermit the Frog. Well, eBay didn’t disappoint and although it did take a while, I now have a Kermit to go with Miss Piggy, Rowlf, Gonzo and Fozzy. The Muppet section of my collection is still missing something though. Possibly Scooter or maybe even Animal. Or how about the old guys from the balcony. Never did catch their names. It’s amazing how the list of thimbles on my wish list keeps growing. The more thimbles I get, the more I seem to be missing. ☺ It’s also amazing how easy it is to get side tracked. While searching for Kermit, I came across this cute little froggy. It’s from the Thimblecraft by Shirley collection. Which then led to this one, also from Thimblecraft by Shirley… And I always thought frogs were supposed to turn into Princes not flowers! Bye for now Olly