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Piper Cleaners


I'm not sure how much pipe cleaning pipe cleaners get up to these days, but despite the decline in sales of pipes themselves, the pipe cleaner trade is still strong.  Instead of becoming anachronistic, they have found new purposes that have supplanted the original one. In the hands of my kids, "piper cleaners" are pliant objects that can be suggestive of so many other things.  Lately, they are being shaped into puppets, flowers, crowns and jewellery.  I am constantly amazed how much they get used.  They are called upon at times when nothing else seems to  work.  A car keeps falling from the string it has been dangled from, messing up a bigger plan to connect the whole thing to two pieces of furniture. A pipe cleaner emergency, of a sort, is declared and they are diligently sought out to reinforce the arrangement.  I think they are popular with them because they can so easily be controlled and do what they are supposed to do in that moment.  How about you, what craft supplies do you love to work with? Which ones do you avoid?

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