When I lived in a dormitory in college, I was desperate for a light table for tracing embroidery designs. But light tables were way beyond my means. But I had a friend! And he had some left over plexiglass! So he gave me a large sheet of it. It was 1/4″ thick, very stiff, not quite as brittle (or breakable!) as glass, and a whole lot lighter. I put my desk lamp under it, and used the make-shift plexiglass table as my light box. It was GREAT. It was big – about 36″ x 40″ – and it was free. I ended up using it practically permanently as an extension to my desk, even though it meant there wasn’t a whole lot of room left in the room!

I’ve been venturing into some new embroidery projects which I already briefly introduced to you a while ago. The project I’m concentrating on first (“Proserpina”) is about 12″ long, which necessitates either moving the design around on my minuscule plastic light box (which is actually a kid’s tracing box from a local craft store), or finding some other solution to transferring the design. I was a bit frustrated at first…. but then….. wistfully recalling the spent days of my youth, and waxing melancholic over the joys of living in a cramped dorm room, I bethought myself of plexiglass.