Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Old Silver Plate

A couple of years ago, I bought a tray full of old silver-plated flatware at a yard sale for $2. I found all kinds of ideas around the web, and these were the ones I liked the best. 
My husband bought me a small pair of bolt cutters, which I've got to admit, I don't know how I got along all these years without them! They've come in really handy, especially for the main reason he got them . . . . for me to cut handles off of spoons and forks and knives. It makes a nice, smooth,clean cut, so that you only have to sand a little bit. 
 
SPOON PENDANT:
I start by cutting the bowl of the spoon off, leaving enough to curl backwards for the chain or ribbon to go through. I can usually get it to curl back with
some needle nose pliers, using a soft cloth between the teeth to prevent tool marks on the silver. Then I'll go through some post cards or greeting cards to find small pictures and words I like to put in the bowl. I have a nice container of old jewelry and glitter and buttons (my Bits&Pieces!) that I'll also add to the little scene I'm creating. Easy on the glitter, I found that out the hard way, a small pinch is all you need, trust me!

SPOON HANDLE BRACELET:
Now, what to do with the handle? Easy . . . make a bracelet! I used a 1/16" bit to drill a hole in each end of the spoon handle. Then I used some very cheap, very coarse, emery boards to sand down the cut edge. I wrapped two pair of slip joint pliers in a dishtowel to keep the tool marks off the spoon handle, and grabbing one end of the handle in each pair of pliers, I bent it into a nice curved shape, perfect for my wrist. The silver-plate is pretty soft to drill through, and to bend into a bracelet. I mentioned the nice container of Bits&Pieces I have . . . . I found a small length of silver-plated chain, and some jump rings and bead pins and eye pins, and a pretty assortment of beads and charms.

WIND CHIME: If you still have an odd assortment of silver plated eating utensils, try making a wind chime. I had a small silver plated trinket tray, too, so I used it to hang the spoons from. 
Find a block of wood to lay out the spoons if you want to pound them flat. 
I used a ball peen hammer for this step. 
Using the 1/16" drill bit, I drilled some holes in the top edge of my trinket tray to hang it from, and some along the bottom to hang the spoons from. Since I had some beading wire left, I used it to string my spoons and beads on, and crimping beads to hold them on. I think it's going to hold up better than fishing line, but we'll see. It makes a soothing,beautiful sound when the breezes move it. I'll take another photo later, since I just this second realized that the photo I do have of the wind chime is "in progress".


Read more: http://kudzukween.blogspot.com/2008/09/old-silver-plate.html#ixzz14FRMQFHm