When Life Gives You Broken China

I dropped a saucer the other day and broke it. It really was unrepairable so I decided to make it into jewelry. 

I turned it over, covered it with a paper towel and proceeded to bang on it with a hammer. It broke into a bunch of triangular pieces.

 I used the hammer to gently break off the sharp pointy ends. Now comes the fun part.

 I used Renaissance Foil (a plastic gold leaf-like stuff) and hot glue to cover and gild the edges.

 Apply the hot glue to one edge, then while it is still hot, place it on the dull side of the foil and fold the foil over. Gently rub the foil to insure complete coverage. The glue will spread a bit making a nice organic shaped frame.

Renaissance Foil used to be found in the gold leaf sections of most craft stores, but I guess it's somewhat out of favor now so unless you have some in your stash (or wish to order it online), you may have to use gold leaf (actually composition leaf). It is still stocked at Michael's. Use the same technique as above. In each case, if the foil/leaf does not stick in one area, simply apply more glue. 

 I looked in the box I have marked "metallic stuff" and found a gold leaf pen. Hmmm. Would this work as well? Again I ran a bead of hot glue around the edge of my china shard. This time I let it set up. I drew around the glue with the pen and wouldn't you know, it worked perfectly. The difference is that the edge is a little thinner as the glue hasn't been smashed.

So here you have 3 for the price of one tutorial. The shard on the left is done with Renaissance Foil, the one in the middle is with gold leaf and the right one is done with a pen. Take your choice.

Now you can glue a pinback on the back, drill a small hole at the top (use a drill bit for ceramic tile) or glue a bale at the top to hang on a chain. Epoxy or E6000 are good choices for adhering the bale and pinback. 

Modern ID Bracelet

Why have an old ID bracelet with his name on it when you can make this and tell the world what you really call him? It might be embarrassing when he's in the locker room and they guys find out his real name is "Pookie".

I used a piece of copper roof flashing, cut it in a small strip and embossed his name with some steel alphabet stamps. Clip off the points and file them.  Use a black sharpie in the grooves of the letters to enhance them then take a piece of sandpaper, steel wool or scrubby pad to buff off the excess black.

If I was a good girl I would have drilled out some small holes on the end, but I was too lazy so I just used a nail and hammer. Make the holes big enough for the stems of those split paper brads. Gently bend the copper to fit around the arc of the wrist. 

Take some thicker leather - maybe an old belt, and transfer the holes from the copper to the leather with a sharp pen. Use your drill or the same nail to make holes. Thread the brads though the copper and then through the leather. Clip off the points (if needed), spread the stems then pound them to set them.

 The easiest way to do a clasp was to use the pop rivet gun. You can buy this whole thing at any hardware store. First select a rivet that will fit through both pieces of leather and a small rivet washer. Make a hole at one end of the bracelet then line up the other to the desired length and make another hole int the other end. Push the rivet through both pieces of leather. Place a washer on the end of the rivet. Put the whole nail end of the rivet into the mouth of the gun. Open the handles then squeeze. You need to hold onto the washer so it won't slip off. It takes at least 2 squeezings for the rivet to set but you only have to hold the washer for the first one. It's a bit like patting your stomach and rubbing your head, but you'll get the hang of it, I'm sure.

 Here you have it, an awesome ID bracelet for an awesome guy.

Leather Key Catcher

I have some leather upholstery samples that screamed "Father's Day Craft". I had read that wet leather moulds very well so I thought I'd give it a try .

You need leather, a bowl and rubber bands for this project.

I had read that the hotter the water, the more malleable the leather becomes. Ever the over achiever, I stuck my leather in a pot of boiling water. Heat causes leather to shrink. (oops) In this case, it was a happy accident because it also thickened the leather. I pulled my leather out of the pot, blotted it with a dish towel then stretched it over my inverted bowl and secured it with rubber bands. 

I let it dry overnight.

The next morning I made sure that it was bone dry and removed the rubber bands. To help stiffen it and make a finished look, I painted 4 coats of amber shellac on the outside and the inside.

 After the shellac dried (thank goodness shellac dries quickly because I am not a patient person), I placed a rubber band back on the leather and traced around it with a black marker.

 I cut it out as carefully as possible.

This adhesive backed copper tape is usually found at better nurseries and is used for slug control. I cut a piece large enough for the circumference of the bowl and cut it in half lengthwise as I felt it was too wide. I carefully stuck half of it to the front of the bowl and then folded it over to the inside. 

If you can't find the copper tape, almost any hardware store has aluminum tape for a leather/silver look.

I placed it back on the inverted mixing bowl and burnished the tape with a spoon. I removed it from the bowl and burnished the tape on the inside with the spoon also.

Not only does this look cool, but it dampens the sound of keys hitting the top of your expensive credenza.

Paper Bead Necklace

It is a dark and gloomy day; pouring rain and cold. A perfect day to make a paper bead necklace.

My old book is 18 inches long. I cut skinny triangles 1.25"wide at the base then taper to a point.

I draw the triangle across the open scissor blade to begin the curl.

I roll it up on a bamboo skewer and glue the tab with a glue stick.

I pour clear embossing powder into an aluminum tart pan and heat it on the stove burner on low. I roll my bead in the melted powder using a couple of toothpicks.

I pick up the bead with a toothpick and stick it into a dollar store bulletin board to dry.

 I thread a bead onto a long headpin, add the paper bead and bend the pin with needle nose pliers.

 I thread the pin onto a chain link and using two pliers, I twist the pin around itself. I put one bead into each link for a full necklace.

 I cut the ends off with flush cutters.

I add a clasp to the chain. 

 Wow. The rain is gone, the sun is shinning and I have a gorgeous necklace.

No Need to Knead Bread

Is there anything better than loaf of homemade bread? I have huge sweet tooth but homemade bread trumps pies and cakes any time. I don't like to knead -wondering if I've done it long or hard enough. I don't have a warm place to raise the bread so I'm never sure I've let it rise enough.

A few years ago the NY Times ran a recipe for 18 hour bread here that required no kneading and no warm "rising closet". I made it for awhile but could never get my act in gear 18 hours ahead of time. The next year the Times ran another bread recipe here that only needed 2 hours. I liked the second recipe but preferred the directions of the first so I combined them.

Ingredients

1 1/2 Tablespoons dried yeast (1 and 1/2 packets)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

6 1/2 cups of all purpose flour (although I've found any flour or combination work)

3 cups hot tap (100 degrees) water

corn meal

Tools

large bowl

2 - 1 quart saucepan and lids (although any saucepan works - small ones will result in tall loaves; large ones, shallow loaves.)

You can cook this bread anyway you want; as a pizza dough, rolls or rectangular pan loaves. I like the artisanal look of round ones.

Dissolve yeast and salt in 3 cups of hot tap water in a large bowl. Stir in 6 1/2 cups of flour until there is no dry flour. Cover with a kitchen towel and allow to rise for 2 hours.

Half an hour before you wish to cook your bread, heat your oven to 450 degrees and place your 2 saucepans in the oven with lids on. Allow to heat for 1/2 hour. Take your pans out of the oven, remove lids and sprinkle with corn meal. Cut the bread dough in half, gently form into loose balls. Drop into the pans and shake to distribute the dough. *note - the Times calls for a second rising but I've never found it necessary.

Cover the pans with the lids and bake (at 450) for 30 minutes. Remove the lids and cook (450) for another 20 minutes.

My pans are a tiny bit narrower at the top making removing the bread a challenge. I wait until the bread cools to coax the bread out with my hands.

This recipe makes 2 loaves, but if you want a larger loaf, use the whole recipe in a dutch oven or soup pan.

Isn't this beautiful?

The bread has a crunchy crust and a heavy body filled with holes, like a rustic french bread.

Wrap in cellophane, tie with a ribbon and believe me, this will be the best hostess gift EVER.

Tagged Lamp

Shipping tags, the darlings of altered artists. A more practical application perhaps? Why not as a lamp shade?

Materials:

Lamp shade (just the wire skeleton)

rebar wire (or similar stiff but bendable wire)

black acrylic paint (optional)

large shipping tags (30 for this sized lamp)

Tools:

copy machine

Download pdf file of Edison light bulbs. Print out this download and then print it on a copy machine. Remove the strings from the shipping tags and tape them over each light bulb. Hand feed the paper with taped tags through the copy machine. The light bulbs should appear on the tags.

Cut shade cloth off of lamp shape revealing the wire skeleton. If the shade has no connecting wires between the top and bottom, cut three 5" pieces of rebar wire. With pliers, bend over the top and bottom to form hooks. Place hooks over the top and bottom skeleton hoops and crimp and wrap wire to form the shade shape. Paint the skeleton black.

Put the strings back onto the tags and tie them onto both tiers of the wire shade. Turn on for a fun look.

This would make a terrific chandelier over a dining table like this one.

Chippendale Mirrors on the Cheap

I'm fascinated that you can buy a beveled mirror for a dollar at the Dollar Tree. Just go into the candle section where they have round, rectangle and square mirrors. I found an oval mirror (not beveled) in the frame aisle. I can't guarantee that the oval ones will always be there, but they've had the beveled ones for years. They do sell out so you might have to go to several stores or stalk the one in your neighborhood.

Wouldn't it be fun to turn them into fancy Chippendale mirrors?

Download and print the various shapes on card stock:

here

here

and here

Print on cardstock and cut out.

I  primed and painted some Masonite I already had to match my walls. Then I centered the pattern on the Masonite and traced around the outside. 

 Using black acrylic paint and a steady hand, I filled in the various mirrors. They look like a bunch of Rorschach ink blots don't they? (My Masonite was only 10 inches tall so I folded the longer mirrors in the middle to shorten them - the patterns are 8 1/2" x 11")

 I used a heat gun, pealed off the rubber feet on the beveled mirrors and carefully removed the oval mirror from it's frame. Then I used double stick weatherstripping tape to attach the mirrors to their frames.  Drill a small hole in the top of the mirror frames and hang them on your wall or do as I did and lean them in the back of a bookcase.

Although I've done these in black, I can imagine a whole wall of these in variety of bright colors in a powder room.