The Rubberband Years - Is This Fibre Art?

I have been really busy this week, partly with craft fairs and also my son fell and broke his wrist, and so we had a long visit to the hospital. I have not been very creative, so I thought I would post about an object that you can always find somewhere around my house: The Giant Rubberband Ball.  I think it is a bit of a testament to my family's love of the slightly offbeam and perhaps misdirected efforts. 

Although you can't tell from this photo, but it is almost entirely made of red rubberbands picked up from the pavement. These are the ones that the postmen throw away. We started making it when my son started walking to nursery school, so it has been a very long term project. It was great fun looking for the rubberbands, and we also felt we were helping tidy up the neighbourhood. I am a bit embarrassed to admit though that sometimes my husband would go on a special trip to the postal sorting office, where he would find a bumper crop of bands for the ball.

But progress has slowed a bit lately, as it has got to the stage where it is so big the rubberbands won't stretch to go around. Someone gave us a packet of larger bands, which is the outer layer.

I have weighed it on my bathroom scales, and it weighs 10.5 kg, or 1stone 9.2lbs. Actually I was a bit surprised it wasn't more, as it is very, very heavy to pick up.

And what is the point? Well there isn't one, although me and my husband do sometimes refer to those walks to and from school as "the rubberband years".