Make Your Own Pricking Cradle

The best ones are made from MDF but you can make one yourself from grey board and bookcloth.

1. The cradle is made from 2mm grey board and some bookcloth or similar fabric.

Diagram 2. Cut two pieces of 2mm grey board that are 34cm x 14cm

Then cut two pieces that are 10cm x 7.5cm. Also cut 4 strips that are 1cm x 7.5 cm. Glue the thin strips as shown -the pencil line is halfway along at 5cm and the point that the two thin strips meet is at 5.5cm down from the top. Trim off the bits of thin board that stick out over the edge of the board. These will be the feet of the cradle.

Make the cradle by joining the two larger pieces of board with bookcloth or similar fabric. The gap between the two boards is 6mm. The bookcloth is in two pieces – one piece is 38cm x 15cm. Stick this one first as it will fold over the side edges. The inside piece is 15 x 33cm and is pressed into the gap between the boards when you stick it in place. This gives you a double layer of cloth in the “hinge” and should last a fair amount of time.

The last thing to do is to cut the slots that the feet will slip in to. These are 2mm wide and are positioned say 2cm in from each end of the cradle. The length of them should be about 15cm to make them fit into the feet that you made. See diagram 2 if you are not sure.

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