A Rose is a Rose?

Here's a new one!

When is a rose not a rose? When it is picnic spoons. Really! These are fun and amazing. No one will guess what this is made of.

Materials:

heavy duty plastic spoons

pin back (optional)

Goop glue (optional)

Tools:

candle

ceramic tile (optional)

garden clippers

pliers

Hold a plastic spoon about an inch above a lighted candle; bowl facing down. Heat for about 5 or 10 seconds until it starts to melt. Take it off the flame and gingerly (it will be very warm) fold it to resemble a rose bud. Make 2 of these.

Place them together and melt the handles just under the buds. Keep an eye on this so that you don't get too close to the flame or overheat and cause blackening of the plastic.

When the handles melt, pull them off of the rose bud and push the bud onto a ceramic tile to flatten the melted area.

Melt the rest of the spoons but this time heat the underside of the bowls. The bowl will wrinkle, melt and sag. Take the spoon off the heat and carefully pull on the tip and bend it backwards. Hold until cool and set.

Snip off the handles with garden clippers. When you have about a dozen petals, begin to assemble the rose.
Hold the tip of the petal with the pliers and heat the place on the spoon where the handle was until it begins to melt. Place it on the rose, wait until it cools and sticks.

Here you have a glossy, porcelain-looking rose.

These spoons came from Wal-Mart (next to the paper towels). You can spray paint them for a different color or buy bags of colored spoons at a party store.

Hot glue silk rose petals to the base of the rose if you wish.

There is a slight stinky melted plastic smell so you may want to open a window.

You can glue these roses to a box or adorn a wreath or do the Carrie Bradshaw thing and make them into a pin. Cut a circle out of a milk jug (I used a punch) and glue it onto the bottom of the rose. Glue a pin back to the circle. Voila! Fine jewelry. Anyway, as fine as it gets at my house.