Nancy Bea,
I hope you find what you are looking for. If you don't, you might want to try attaching a nut to the bottom of a cigar box, small wooden easel box (fairly inexpensive at art supply stores) or even just a piece of masonite (I glued a 1 1/2" square piece of wood to the middle to hold the nut) that will allow you to attach it to your tripod. Not perfect, but cheap
Allan,
Thanks for the photos - my hat is off to your creative inventiveness. Very impressive!