Cones and Cards: Goodbye to Traffic Control

In Australia, I've worked in several restaurants, a bar, a hotel, and a hostel. My longest job? My 88 days, of course, where I was a Traffic Controller in my second year.

I ended up staying in this job all the way until my third year visa ended, partially for the money, but mostly for the great office staff who understood my travel injuries, eventual illness, and overall dis- and reappearances between my never ending days off.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and the novelty of traffic control was wearing me down. With my official holiday visa ending, it was time to return to real life: one where I had just a sprinkle of of routine. It was time to get back into my hobbies and my own life, without the influences of backpackers and the ongoing stress of waiting for my next paycheck.

Speaking of hobbies, trinkets and trinket making, of course I made the office staff some little trinkets to keep at their desks or on their office keys.

Here's what I ended up with...

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I first had to come up with a design. I was tossing up between a huge tassel, bunch of beaded strings, or making my own beads out of air dry clay. I wanted to create traffic cone beads with the air dry clay, but ended up finding an old stash of shrink paper. I decided to draw out some traffic cones, and try the shrink paper, instead!

They were so cute coming out of the oven! I made sure to punch holes before melting them down, too. I put them in the oven at the lowest temperature, i think around 160ish(?) then let them curl up and back down again. I used acrylic spray sealant on them, which was a huge mistake. I used way too much, and should've just used regular Mod Podge or something of the like.

Next, I didn't film, because I was watching a movie and in flow state, but I made flower chains out of seed beads and used an old friendship bracelet technique to create a corded 'caution tape'-themed strand. Here's what they looked like assembled.