I spent most of yesterday engaged on the pendant mild that can go above my desk within the studio. The half I labored on is the slowest and most time-consuming a part of the entire course of, however it’s additionally essentially the most enjoyable. I totally loved sitting at my work desk all afternoon and night, paint brush in hand, portray spoon bowls and simply imagining all of them hanging en masse on the sunshine cage that I constructed.
I estimated that this pendant mild would require about 1200 spoons, so I began this mission a couple of weeks in the past by slicing the handles off of the spoon bowls utilizing wire snips. After which a couple of days in the past, I spent a day and night sanding the entire spoon bowls to spherical off the minimize. Right here’s what they regarded like earlier than, with a straight minimize edge…
And right here’s what they regarded like after I sanded them.
Since I don’t have a bench sander, I simply used my little handheld rotary sander, and used my knees to carry it the other way up. After a number of hours of that, my legs felt numb, however I bought the entire spoons sanded.
After that, I wanted to prime all 1200 spoon bowls. I began out priming them one by one with a bit craft brush, however realized in a short time how insane that plan was. So as a substitute, I positioned them flat on a piece floor outdoors and sprayed them.
This was a fairly irritating course of as a result of they’re very mild weight, and each every so often, the pressure of the spray would ship them flying. However even with that frustration, it was a lot quicker and simpler than portray every one individually with primer.
So by the point I set to work on these yesterday, the entire spoon bowls had been minimize, rounded, and primed. I began my work yesterday by grouping the spoon bowls into 15 piles, one for every of the 15 colours that I plan to make use of, after which labored on one pile, one coloration, at a time. I began by giving every spoon a fast sanding by hand to easy out any tough end from the spray primer.
After which utilizing a small craft brush, I painted the backs of the spoons with liquid gold gilding.
This was a two-part course of as a result of I needed to maintain the tip whereas portray a lot of the again, then let it dry, after which paint the tip that I had been holding on the primary go ’spherical. However this was the enjoyable half. I may sit and paint spoon bowls whereas listening to podcasts all day day by day. 😀
After the backs have been dry (and gold gilding dries very quick), I flipped them over and portray the entrance of the spoon bowls utilizing the paints that I blended in Half 2 of this mission. Every spoon required two coats of paint to get the total coloration. And people tiny little cups of paint that I blended have been loads of paint for 2 coats even for the highest, greatest rings of the sunshine that can maintain essentially the most spoon bowls.
After the paint was dry, I used the tiny brush and the liquid gold gilding once more to color across the edges to “body” the colourful paint. I purposefully did this in a messy, random method, similar to I did on the piece of spoon paintings I made.
In any case of that, I nonetheless wanted to cowl the perimeters. I attempted utilizing the comb and liquid gold gilding, however it wasn’t as quick and simple as I had hoped.
So I bought out my 18kt Gold Leafing Pen, and that was good for overlaying these edges.
And the ultimate step was to drill the opening for the leap ring that can maintain these colourful little jewels into the wire lampshade cage. For this, I used my Dremel and a tiny drill bit.
So I did all of these steps in an meeting line vogue, one pile, one coloration, at a time. I solely bought two colours completed, however these are the colours that required essentially the most spoons. As I am going alongside, I’ll want fewer and fewer spoons for every subsequent coloration. However right here’s my pile of crimson all prepped and able to be held on the wire cage. I wanted 88 of those…
And right here’s the darkish pink for the following ring. I wanted 84 of those…
After which I solely bought one completed of the third coloration in order that I may take photos of the method. 😀 However I’ll want 80 of the third coloration. So I’ll proceed that course of till I’ve all 15 colours carried out, with every subsequent coloration requiring 4 fewer spoons than the colour earlier than it.
I’m going to maintain going till it’s completed. I don’t need to cut up my time or consideration between this and one other mission this weekend. So we’ll see how lengthy it’ll take me to get via 15 colours. Even when I get the entire colours painted over the following two days, I severely doubt that I’ll have the ability to get all of them held on the wire cage earlier than Monday. However we’ll see!
Addicted 2 Adorning is the place I share my DIY and adorning journey as I transform and adorn the 1948 fixer higher that my husband, Matt, and I purchased in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do bodily work, so I do nearly all of the work on the home on my own. You can learn more about me here.