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 probably the most enjoyable. I completely 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 challenge 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 reduce. Right here’s what they seemed like earlier than, with a straight reduce edge…
And right here’s what they seemed 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 wrong 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 after the other with a little 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 exterior and sprayed them.
This was a fairly irritating course of as a result of they’re very mild weight, and each on occasion, the power 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 reduce, 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 colour, 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 many 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 each 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 combined in Half 2 of this challenge. Every spoon required two coats of paint to get the total colour. And people tiny little cups of paint that I combined have been loads of paint for 2 coats even for the highest, greatest rings of the sunshine that can maintain probably 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 means, similar to I did on the piece of spoon paintings I made.
In spite of everything 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 straightforward as I had hoped.
So I bought out my 18kt Gold Leafing Pen, and that was excellent for overlaying these edges.
And the ultimate step was to drill the opening for the soar 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 style, one pile, one colour, at a time. I solely bought two colours completed, however these are the colours that required probably the most spoons. As I am going alongside, I’ll want fewer and fewer spoons for every subsequent colour. However right here’s my pile of pink 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 colour in order that I may take footage of the method. 😀 However I’ll want 80 of the third colour. So I’ll proceed that course of till I’ve all 15 colours carried out, with every subsequent colour 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 break up my time or consideration between this and one other challenge 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 be capable 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’ll be able to study extra about me right here.
