In the book “The Art Of Ship Modeling” by Bernard Frolich, I found on page 202
a discussion on how to make a mouse for the stays on your sailing ship. I tried it, added a
holding fixture, and found that it works. You might try it yourself with the following
fixtures.

I cut a piece of wood 2” in diameter, 3/8 inches thick, and then cut slots in the rim
of the disc 15 degrees apart, with every other slot ¼” deep in comparison to 1/8” deep. I
drilled a hole in the center of the disc just slightly larger than the diameter of the stay.
Feed the stay through the center hole of the disc and hold in place with a slivered wedge
of wood. Mount a rounded, truncated cone approximately 2” below the disc and hold in
place with a dab of white glue. Hold the assembly in place on a fixture describe below.
Thread a needle and pass 2 lengths of thread through the stay at 90 degree angles, feeding
the thread through the appropriate slots in the disc and then through the stay about an
inch above the disc. Hold the thread in the slots with a tiny dab of white glue.

Then proceed to pass lengths of thread through each disc slot, through the stay
and then through the disc slot 180 degrees opposite. With all 24 slots filled, pass a thread
through the stay at the base of the cone plug and then thread that through each of the
vertical threads going over and under each thread until you spiral to the top of the plug.
Finish by passing the thread through the stay, and hold with a touch of CA glue.

You can then remove from the holding fixture, remove the disc and trim the ends
of the vertical threads, VOILA! A MOUSE!

Hopefully the drawings (above) will help make the written instructions more
clear.