Of spindles and spinning

The making the spindles evolved from my wanting to spin wool and not being able to afford the beautiful, hand turned spindles that started at $35 and went up from there. I am a practical person and have made and used my own spindles for 8 years. I do own 3 (of 18 or so) that are "professionally" made, but have found myself not using them as much because I like mine better in that I feel they have more personality than "the other 3". I use acrylic paints because I don't have to wait very long for the paint to dry. The spindles I make are practical enough to use, pretty enough to show off and inexpensive enough to give to someone who is learning to spin and who will be dropping it often in that learning process. They don't refer to them as drop spindles just because they ˆspinˆ downward.