HandMade's Tale

I'm still not sure what to make of Kirstie's latest programme - Kirstie's Celebrity Craft Masters. Some of the time, I was wondering "Who are these celebrities? I have never heard of them" and at other times I thought "Polly and Piyush [see below] are great judges- they are not afraid to say 'this is rubbish!'". Then there were the moments of watching and thinking - "this is a craft I've not heard of before - should I research this?" but most often I found myself thinking "The 'experts' who have been paired with the celebs may be experts in one craft, but they're pretty poor at the others"

The idea, if you haven't seen the show , is that two celebrities go head to head to find out which has the better crafting skills.
They are given two challenges [make a chandelier/mobile/concrete pot/soap etc] a 'recycling challenge' [items of their own choosing] and a 30 minute 'go-it-alone' activity [shaving foam marbling/cardmaking/cake decorating...]

I enjoyed watching Sharron Davies and Tanni Grey-Thompson. They were good fun, self-deprecating, and tried hard to do well. They encouraged each other and that one was a good programme.
But TGTs wall art was a disaster - even she said "Yes, it does look like a chicken has been massacred"
In her defence, when Piyush asked why she'd used such a dreadful mix of coloured paper, she said "Well that was what we had" - surely her expert should have considered the materials he was providing for her? One poor chap drilled a hole in his kitchen table after the expert told him to 'keep drilling' through his piece of wood. 
And as for the 'expert' who failed miserably at making a mould for a candle out of thin card...or the one who stapled fabric over a stool top, and left all the raw edges showing, no wonder their celebs did not win.
As for new crafts - I had not come across fauxidermy before. This is when you create an animal head to hang on the wall like a hunting trophy, but without using any dead animals, a sort of vegan taxidermy. Bob thought I said Folksy-Dermy [which sounds like Maddie Prior's Skin Care regime] 

Nor was I aware that those geodesic lampshades they sell in IKEA have a proper name -  himmeli. This way of making geodesic shapes with tubing is a recognised Scandi Craft. When I was at school, we made models of the Platonic Solids using drinking straws and thread. I really enjoyed the constructions.  I didn't know back then that it had a name.
But the oddest one was the injecting jelly to make flowers. It resulted in a beautiful finished product- but why would anyone do this? And would you want to eat it?

One final question, has anyone ever seen Dear Kirstie wearing anything other than a long sleeved shirtwaister frock? [not counting her outerwear, she has an awful lot of winter coats and warm hats...] All her dresses seem to be exactly the same style.