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.