To Everything There Is A Season

A Time For Every Purpose Under Heaven

A blog about raising a young family and keeping Christ at the center of it.



The Cyrs

The Cyrs
Photo Credit: Rachel Dewhurst

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

A Time to Make a Spoon Necklace

This spoon necklace was a craft we did at our Bible study a couple weeks ago. We have a very talented artist in our church and she taught us how to do this. The spoons had already been cut and bent for us, we just needed to do the remainder of the work.


If you want to try this at home, here's what you'll need:


Silver spoon
Hacksaw
Sand paper or rotary tool
Pliers
Acrylic Paint (various colors)
Thin paintbrushes
2-part Epoxy Resin
1 measuring tsp
Clear disposable plastic cup
Toothpick
A few cups of rice
8X8 or larger dish or container
Ribbon 
Embellishments (optional)


The first thing you do once you have selected your spoon is to cut of the handle using a hacksaw and leaving about 1 inch. Sand down the rough edge with a rotary tool (using wire attachment) or by hand with sandpaper. Next take a pair of pliers and bend the remainder of the handle to form a circle. You want the edge to touch the back of the spoon or get as close to it as you can. 


Using acrylic paint start by painting your spoon one solid color. This will take two coats. Let it dry completely in between coats of paint. We used a hairdryer to speed the process along and it took only a couple of minutes for it to dry. Now your spoon is ready for the art. Paint whatever you like. I love sunflowers so that's why I chose to do a sunflower. This is a delicate process so you want to use very little paint and a thin brush. Our teacher had some really nice gold embellishment's we could put on so I chose a dragonfly. If you choose to put embellishments on this is the time to do it...before the resin is poured on. Once you are finished your painting you want to let it dry. We did this project in two steps so I'm not exactly sure how long you would need to let the paint dry before adding the epoxy but I'd say a couple of hours to be on the safe side. 


While your spoon is drying take your tray or plate (we used a 9X11 plastic tupperware) and cover it with rice. You will use this to rest your spoon on once you have poured the resin into it.


Taking your 2-part epoxy resin you want to mix equal parts of each expoxy. We mixed 1 tsp. of the first kind with 1 tsp of the second kind (order does not matter) into the plastic cup. Take the toothpick and stir the mix gently for about 2 minutes. Very carefully pour the resin into the base of the spoon till it just meets the edge of the spoon. If you get any of the resin on the table or your hands wipe it immediately with nail polish remover. We covered the tables with newspaper to be on the safe side and I recommend you do the same. Hold your spoon and watch as air bubbles begin to rise to the surface. You want to gently blow on the spoon to pop them. Some of us had success with this process and others didn't. Joy mentioned that those who had more air bubbles than others most likely stirred the epoxy too fast when mixing. After about 5 minutes the bubbles should be done rising to the top. Then gently place the spoon onto the rice and cover the container. This is to avoid dust landing on the spoon before the resin has dried. Place the container in a place you know it won't be disturbed for 24-hrs. 


The next day check to make sure the resin is hardened. Take a piece of ribbon to put the spoon pendant on. You can use anything you like for the necklace part. 


This was a really neat project to do. I am not at all an artist but my sunflower didn't turn out half bad. If I can do it, then any of you can do it too!








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