Monday, February 28, 2011

Spoon Bracelet

I really love spoon jewelry. I love that most of it's made from vintage silverware and you always get a unique one of a kind piece. I have never owned a spoon bracelet and while searching the Internet last night I came across one that I almost bought but at the last minute I didn't. Somewhere in the back of my mind I thought I might be able to make one myself and save me the 40 dollars in buying one. I went to bed planning out how you might go about doing .

This morning I got on the net to see if I could find  a tutorial for making one and I surprisingly couldn't find anything very helpful. So, I set out in search of a spoon to begin my experiment.

I knew the silverware had to be actual silver. What I wasn't sure of is if silver plated is ok or not. Do they make silverware out of pure silver??? I don't know. I stopped by my local Goodwill and couldn't find any silverware at all. Next stop was the Antique Mall. It's a super shabby place. Inside of a really old gymnasium with sagging water stained ceilings. However-it's awesome in my opinion and I did find a booth with a box full of antique silverware. Most of it was not silver or silver plated . I did find two silver plated ones that I thought might work and thankfully they were half off.

In case you are like me and love to make things-Here is how I did it:
PS-I started with the cheaper less pretty spoon in case I majorly messed up

*I put the spoon on my husbands small anvil and flattened out the head of the spoon with a rubber mallet. I had to seriously beat it to death to get it flat. It worked though... :)

*I then used my metal stamps to stamp the words. (There are a bunch of tutorials online for stamping metal if you want to see how it's done.)

* The stamping made it wonky so I beat it flat once again.

*This is the step I had to majorly guess on. When making a metal bracelet you are supposed to use a mandrel (it's a steel or wood round cone thing). I don't have one yet (next thing I am going to buy to make this way easier). I searched the garage for something round and hard and the only thing I could come up with was the handle of a hammer. I laid the spoon on the hammer and pounded it with the rubber mallet so it would start to curl. This part was not easy.  I probably could have done a better job but it's my first one so who cares!

*I used a wire brush and some soap and cleaned it all up.

*Used my Euro Punch to punch holes into the metal and then used some chain and trinkets for the rest.

Here is the finished product. I like how it turned out but I am definitely spending the money for a mandrel next time.




11 comments:

  1. I am so jealous, You are so stinking creative! Remember our conversation about the ability you have to do anything? Yep. I love it! How much would you charge to make one?

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  2. how did you make this? its so unique

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  3. What a beautiful bracelet! and great practical advice!

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  4. wow what a great idea i love it ,

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  5. Really great inspiration for me and I hope to give this a try too. Thank you so much.

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  6. bravo tres beau et tres bonne idée

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  7. For cheap...read, almost free....mandrels .talk to the folks at your local hardware/lumber/home improvement store about small sections of different sizes of metal pipe or pieces of 1X1, 2X2, etc., lumber, shave off the edges, and then sand them down. Dowels also make good mandrels for small pieces, and they're cheap too. The odd remnants of either pipe or wood may well be free because they have very little use for sections under 1'

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  8. I just thought about using a baseball bat, too. Find a nice reject one pretty cheap I would imagine.

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  9. I chuckle at your "beating it to death" reference. A rubber mallet is a wonderful tool in jewelry making and way of getting your frustration out! www.etsy.com/shop/embellishbyajewelry

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  10. What size stamping letters did you use? thank you for sharing this! I have always wanted to try stamping some silverware but didn't know how..thanks for more details on this.

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