Loss and Pie

My family suffered a loss at the end of February, and I've been trying to write a post about. Every time I sit down to write it though, there's a blank wall. So I'm going to write about something only vaguely connected and see how that goes...

One thing that happens (at least in our area) at times like these is people bring lots of food and many desserts! However, due to health reasons, I can't eat most of that food. Having a gluten intolerance/sensitivity/allergy is difficult to explain to most people, and I never expect others to go out of their way to make me special food. This meant that I subsisted on crackers, granola bars, and things I could microwave whilst spending lots of time away from my home kitchen. I can usually handle watching people eat glutenous things around me, but there is one thing that makes me sad, every time, PIE. I miss flaky crust, the pies that my grandmothers made (one excels at apple and the other made a delicious lemon meringue), and most of all cherry pie. A cherry pie can be completely terrible and I'd still eat it because it's still cherry pie (looking at you Hostess snack pies). Needless to say, the lack of pie hasn't helped my grief and for some strange reason I fixated on pie. I have some gluten-free ones in the mail right now, don't worry!

While I wait for my pies to be delivered, I am still thinking about it! As with most emotions, I had to immerse myself in being crafty. I find creating things to be very cathartic and it was good time to test out new clay for my hand-sculpted creatures. Some of you know this, but the idea for my bottle-cap cages all started with a pie plate. I was perusing #Pinterest (as you do) and stumbled across an old tin pie plate that had been turned into a very rustic bird cage and the light bulb went off.

What's tiny and looks like a pie plate?!?! That's right, a bottle-cap. Thus the bottle-cages were born, with the newest versions containing my own creatures. Back to pie...with this new clay I had a rapidly hardening piece of clay that wasn't going to make it into animal form and I was transported back to that tiny pie plate thought. Some of the caps I've collected are flared and I can not use them for my cages or fairy baskets, but they look the most like pie plates. I put my extra clay in one of them and my first pie was made. A cherry pie of course...

The friends I shared it with loved it as much as me. From there I started thinking of other tiny pies that I could make and here are the other two I've already gotten finished. (They also happen to be my second and third favorite kinds of pie).

I'm so happy to finally have an adorable way to #upcycle these flared caps and the pies absolutely kill me with how cute they are. I also had to make my own pie boxes as a way to display and sell them, as that's just how I am. I used some old manilla folders to manufacture them.

I am so happy with how they turned out and can't wait to get to making (and eating) more pies! Let me know what you think of them and if you have ideas for the kind of pies I should whip up next?

Thanks for reading and, if you can, go and have some pie for me!

-Angi <3

#upcycle #miniature #bottlecap #pie #loss #creativecatharsis