Oak Street Seniors complete craft projects
Published 10:29 am Wednesday, October 31, 2018
- Members of the Oak Street Senior Citizens group pose proudly with items that they made doing this craft session. Some of them are even wearing the hats that they created during the class session. In front, from left, are Shirley Black, class instructor Barbara Barnes and Barbara Wilson; back, Virginia Edmonds, Louise Haskins, Betty Patterson, Barbara McClenny, Margie Copeland, Jean Bullock and Odessa Anderson. Not pictured are Mary Britt, Nellie Boone, Ernestine Barnes, Robert Fogan, Lula Barnes, Janice Joyner, Bearice Chapman, Virginia Haley, Martha Lawrence and Mary Belton. A special notice on one longtime faithful member of the group is Hattie Holland, who at the time of her death on Sept. 6, was listed as the center’s oldest senior citizen. -- Frank A. Davis | Tidewater News
FRANKLIN
The Oak Street Seniors arts & crafts instructor, Barbara Barnes, has had some of the members of the senior group busy over the past few weeks working on a variety of various arts and crafts projects.
“There is none thing more satisfying than designing and making beautiful things for your home by giving familiar old items a new look,” said Barnes. Old items as a jar, a No. 10 can, and an old straw hat, with a little paint, flowers and glitter can be given a new life/purpose in the home or to be worn as with the straw hat.”
Barnes and her always-eager group of seniors at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center have been very active in converting the list of items into a new beautiful project. The empty No. 10 can from the kitchen has been decorated with old magazine book images, ribbons and lace to be converted into a toilet paper holder. The use of the cans is furthered as two cans are joined together to make an umbrella holder. A discarded jar or name more familiar for many seniors, a canning jar, easily can become a lovely centerpiece in a room. The improvements with it as well can come from use of magazine images, ribbons, lace, flowers, glitter and paint.
Lastly, the old straw hat gets a new look when a touch of flowers in a variety of colors, a grosgrain ribbon bows with streamers that are glued to it to produce a one of a kind new designer hat.
“The key to success,” said Barnes, is “combining imagination with practical know-how with crafting and decorating with clear step-by-step instruction for each project. Each project means you can work at your own speed, even if you have no previous experience.”