My husband was sorting things in the garage recently and ran across my collection of pipe cleaner people. I hadn't seen these since the last time we moved and was quite happy to have them back; I wasn't completely sure they hadn't been thrown out by mistake. The oldest of these, the Madonna and Child figure at the top left, was one of several I made with different-colored outfits as decorative gifts for Christmas 2008. The others were made at various times between 2013 and 2018 and are intended to be gently posed and played with. I do like constructing things with pipe cleaners--though the correct thing to call them nowadays is chenille sticks, since they are sold as craft supplies and I've never known anybody to actually use them to clean pipes. Anyway, they are colorful and don't stain things or break if they are dropped or grabbed by a toddler and thrown across the room.
I must have run out of chenille sticks in the middle of a project, since there was the beginning of another mermaid figure in the same basket. I'll have to see if I can get matching pipe cleaners and finish it.
And this little critter was there, too. My son was impressed by the fanciful toy figures I'd been creating and asked me to make him a praying mantis, but since I was running out of green pipe cleaners its head and body are red.
