Musical Maris

オルゴール入りの土台まりの作り方

When the Spring Fling gathering was just getting going, one of the first questions tossed out by Paula was whether there was any place to get a musical mari base or rather, had anyone ever thought of or tired to make one.... well, in fact they DO have them in Japan but alas we've not been able to rev up a secure order process to be able to obtain any. I do have a sample of one, and we spent a bit musing about how we might go about creating one -then moved on. Well, Paula it seemed really had a thing to come up with one, and not long after the Fling weekend, a wonderful little package arrived in my mailbox. It had a little note on it that said "press here" - and lo an behold I was listening to "It's a Small World" coming out of this adorable temari! Included were Paula's instructions on how she pulled it off as well as a sample little music box to try it on my own (still on the do list).

3 inch or larger styrofoam ball - Small pressure-play music box (I use one which is about 1.25 inch diameter by 0.5 inches deep, which I found for $1.27 at AC Moore) Place the music box on top of the styrofoam ball and draw around it with a permanent marker. Using a knife, cut around the drawn line about 0.5 inches deep then pry/dig out the styrofoam. Put the music box into the hole, enlarging the hole if needed, until it fits snuggly (is this a word???) This
leaves a flat surface area where the box is. Insert small crumbs of styrofoam into any larger gaps between the styrofoam and the ball. Using a cotton ball or batting, build up the area on top of the music box, then wrap the ball with fingering yarn and then thread as usual. The location of the music box is easy to find.....if you roll the ball gently it will come to rest on the music box because of the weight! Check to be certain the box will play with firm pressure on this point, and then place a short pin (eg an applique pin) on the exact spot, or otherwise mark the spot. Now divide the ball as usual, leaving the music box mark as the north pole.

".....all you have to do it press on the ball in the right place. I worked on the concept after our discussion at the fling, and your demonstration of the hollow ball from Japan with the internal music box....all I did was hollow out a spot on the styrofoam ball to insert a smaller pressure activated box like one finds in teddy bears. It seems to work well, but any balls like this would have to come with directions or the receiver would not how to start the music, nor even that there was that option! Please ignore the decorations on the ball. I wanted to finish quickly so I opted to do the dragonfly ball that Nicole had shown us, but my
work was not so careful in my haste."

Needless to say I was tickled to receive both the temari and that Paula had indeed prefected the musical mari theory - then also chuckled later to receive this email from her: " .....you will get a laugh out of this. On the airplane coming home I was working on a rainbow colored chrysanthemum, north pole only with elongated petals extending nearly to the south pole. I had inserted a "It's a small world" small music box into the north pole of the styrofoam as in the one I sent you....but apparently the tension on the box was so great with all the stitching around the north pole that some stitches would just start the music up ..... and it wouldn't stop!! The whole plane was pretty tired of the small world thing.... I had to keep massaging the ball to try to relieve the pressure around the north pole. My children suggested, less than diplomatically, that I just throw the ball out the window (but I had already put hours of work into this ball, and besides, what about the pressurized cabin?). SO, the music box idea may need some refinement...."