Emily gave me a shopping list this morning and sent me off into the world. The list is pretty straight forward, but I’m in NY were everything seems to be moving at a fast pace, but actually takes forever.
I went to four different fabric stores to pick up silk for the monkeys’ skin. Most of my time seemed to involve heading in the wrong direction and back-tracking. I’m sure I’ll get the hang of navigating, because I’ve done it here before, but it always seems to take awhile for me to remember the uptown/downtown orientation.
After that it was off to look for yak fur, for their hair. I had no success. Ironically, the closest I came was a really gorgeous pelt, which turned out to be Icelandic sheep. Go figure. $250 for something that I can buy in Ikea in Iceland for $25.
Next up. Balls for the monkeys. I’m trying to find rattan, wicker or grapevine balls that are 2″ in diameter. So far, I found some really gorgeous ones in Tibet, but the shipping is killer. I’m now trying to track down a store with parrot toys, because evidentially parrots like to play with 2″ wicker balls. I don’t understand, but I won’t complain if I can find them.
Tomorrow, I’ll be picking up airplane cable, wooden balls and dowels.
Tags: Iceland, Journal, Puppetry
Hmm. I think I’ve seen wicker/grapevine balls at Pier One.
And I’m being a good girl and refraining from making any monkey ball jokes.
Will the balls actually be used as such? Charming. There used to be some rather grotty afghani and south american import places in the village on st. marks that sold fragrant yak-ish pelts, but they are likely all gone and replaced with starbucks. Good luck in your quest…
Aimee: I’ve seen them at Pier One too, but we need ones that are only 2″ and most of them are in the 4″-6″ range. We found some Christmas lights on ebay that we’re going to bid on.
-e- Thanks for the tip. I’ll check that out tomorrow when I’m in the St. Marks area.
Hey, animals’ playthings can be of a strange and curious sort. As we learned, upon visiting your house. Well, maybe that was more of a disguise than a plaything. I find myself telling the story of Jasper a lot, as conversations will quite often turn to the foibles of cats.
Good luck with your search. And happy birthday!!
Our latest find for the right size turns out to be a Chincilla chew toy. How odd.