Popping Popcorn

I met new friends at the Philadelphia Miniaturia show 2 weeks ago. (Show was amazing for anyone interested -- multiple rooms of vendors! Well worth the time and hotel room to fully see everything.) One of my new friends mentioned she saw a popcorn string to hang on a Christmas tree: the kind with cranberries strung in between each popcorn kernel. And I remembered that was one of my "to do" list projects. So using my new friends as an excuse to not feel guilty about playing with miniatures, I "popped" right into mini mode and decided to make us some.

The popcorn I had made last year (Post of first popcorn I made) wasn't going to be enough for my project, never mind being enough for both my new friend and me. So, I got to work making more popcorn. Rolled hundreds of little balls, some got indented/poked with a needle, and then 2 or 3 were stuck together to create a "popped" kernel:

One round, one indented

Pushed 2 rounded together and the indented one is on top

My little popped kernel

Roughly 1/16"

My army of kernels (colonels? Lol)

Then I had to "string" them. The cranberries were easy; they are beads. But the miniature popcorn had to be glued onto the strand. Plus I need the string to be flexible so it can be put on any tree (or garland or where ever my friend will put hers) so I can't just glue the kernels to the cranberry beads. First attempt was on nylon invisible thread. Big mistake. I could hardly see it to glue the popcorn in place. Plus it was very rigid. So I quickly switched to white thread and that worked great.

Threaded the beads on but glued the kernel to the thread allowed for the flexibility I'd need!

Friend's 2 foot long strand has been mailed to her and now I'm working on my shorter strands to go in to my miniature Christmas scene.

2 foot long strand

Up close

Still flexible!

But before I can work on my christmas scene, I have to first deconstruction/spray paint/renovate my childhood dollhouse into a witch's home!