Mending

I've done a fair amount of mending over the years, perhaps especially this year, since “Mend” has been my special focus. Sorry to say I haven’t mended everything I meant to (yet!) – there is a basket of items needing attention in my studio thumbing its nose at me whenever I walk by.

And today I helped mend something I've never dreamed of tackling before…a concrete garden fountain!

My friend Lysa recently bought a garden fountain she’s had her eye on for a while. When they got it home and lifted it out of the car, one corner of the top broke off. Moisture had penetrated partway along the break line, so clearly it had been cracked for a while. Very disappointing! But gardeners are an intrepid lot. She headed off to the hardware store for epoxy that claims to glue concrete, rounded up a couple of long clamps, and we tackled the job this morning.

I apologize for no pictures, but neither of us has done anything like this before, and there was no way I was getting my camera anywhere near brown, gooey epoxy! (I have a bad track record for messiness.) We mixed the two parts of the glue, donned plastic gloves, smeared and fitted and clamped, and then crossed our fingers. The repair is still drying so no final results are in, but we have high hopes that the mend will prove functional, though probably not invisible. But that’s okay, “visible mending” is something of a movement these days. Try that phrase on Google or Pinterest.

It’s too bad we didn’t have gold epoxy though, we could have mended it kintsugi style.

A concrete fountain is not the only odd thing I've ever mended. I think the previous record was held by the traveling dog crate ripped by an exuberant young Golden retriever. It's not terribly elegant, but it was patched it well enough for Higgs to travel 1500 miles or so home in it.

Millie was a lot of help with that mend!

Since the weather has been cold and damp here, I'm quite pleased with the other mend I recently completed. Back in May, Judy and I went to an outdoor rummage sale on a really cold and rainy morning. The weather probably influenced me to buy this Norwegian sweater. 

When I got home, I looked up the brand and discovered that you can still buy this exact same sweater. Of course a new one will set you back $220. Mine cost $1. But it had holes!

One should never let a hole or two (or five or six) get in the way of a lovely wool sweater. Some red cashmere scraps and a bit of embroidery thread to the rescue.

And wouldn’t you know it – I like it much better now than when it was just black and white!