Making a Brass Plate to Replace a Missing One

The antique jeweler's bench that I just cleaned up

was missing one of the brass plates that sit behind

the drawer pulls and door knobs.

So I made a brass plate to replace the one that was missing.

This is how I did it.

I found a piece of brass from my metal stash. 

I placed the brass plate on top of my piece of 

brass and traced it with my scribe.

Then I used my jewelry saw and cut out my
new brass plate.

I smoothed out the edges of my plate with my file.

There are three holes in this plate.
 To get three holes into my new plate I placed
the old plate on top off the new one and used my
hole punch to mark where I want the holes to be
 on the new plate. 

I used my drill press to make my holes.
Then I filed off the burs with my file.

My plate is looking pretty good.
There are markings on the old plate that I
 tried to replicate.
I used a nail punch and a chisel to replicate the
shapes on the old plate. 

To give my new plate a little patina I put it in
a bowl with a very small amount
of black patina.

In about a minute my piece was black.
I took it out and rinsed it with cool water.

I used a piece of 1000 grit steel wool
to take off a little of the black. This gave the piece
more of a worn look.

There you have it,
new made old,
 old just like new.

My new brass plate looks wonderful on my
antique jeweler's bench.

Look What Just Arrived in my Studio

I am now the owner of this
 hand made antique jeweler's bench

 and it now sits in my studio.
This is an account of how I obtained
and then cleaned this jeweler's bench.

August the 19th was my daughter Rachel's birthday.

Rachel wanted to go junking for her birthday.
 My mom, daughter in law Felicia

 and Rachel took our seats in the Ford Flex
and headed out for

an adventure.

 Felicia had never been 

junking so she really did not know what 

she was in for.
We dragged her to garage sales, yard sales,

 storage sales, estate sales

and even a foreclosure sale.
 We saw some good stuff,

 some bad stuff and a lot of dirt.

Felicia was a trooper.
 Before we wrapped it up for the day

 I thought we all needed a trip to an antique store.
  That is were I found this piece.

When I saw this cabinet in the antique store all I was 

thinking was,"I have to have this piece, the price is right

and it is wonderful."

I did not look in the drawers and I did not have a flash light.

(lesson learned)

As you can see when I got this piece up to my studio

I was in for a lot of sweet equity.

This was the dirtiest piece of furniture I have ever come across.

I started the cleaning by wiping the whole thing
 down with Murphy's Oil soap.
That is when I saw that several of the drawers needed
to be repaired.
I was able to fix them with a
 little wood glue and some wire brads and all was well.
While fixing the drawers I realized just how dirty
they were (dirty is being kind).

I was going to have to resort to drastic measures
 to get the inside of these drawers clean.
(Now I do not suggest doing this, I only got
away with it because the wood in this cabinet
is a good hardwood).
I used a spray bleach and a small amount of water
with a scrub brush.
I would spray, scrub, then rinse with a very small amount of water.
Then I would wipe out the drawer and remove all the water.
 I would then came back with more bleach
and a tooth brush so that I could get into the corners.
With a scrubbing sponge I scrubbed some more.
This was quite a process and took a long time
but it did work and my drawers are very clean.

 The outside of my cabinet needed some more cleaning as well,
years and years of wax and grime were evident.
I had already used the oil soap but it needed something more.
I didn't want to remove the
aged patina or ruin the "look",
so I took a sanding sponge and lightly sanded the hole piece.

I then vacuumed the cabinet and removed all the
remaining dust with a damp cloth.

Now it was time for the fun part.
Time to wax.

Here you can see the left half of the cabinet is waxed
while the right side is not.

 My cabinet is clean and waxed.
It smells so good!
I am a happy girl.

As a side note,
 while I was cleaning
this wonderful piece I found a secret
drawer and that my cabinet had been signed.

Happy hunting!

Tuesdays Tips and Tools- Gift Wrapping with old Bills

How many of us love to pay bills?

Just kidding! 

There is an up side to paying bills.

Not only do your lights stay on but

your bills come in envelopes with really

nice geometric designs.  

Often times I will save these envelopes for

a rainy day craft. 

Today I will show you how I used one of these 

envelopes to wrap a small gift.

 I just trim off the window boxes.

Then I place my gift box on top of the paper

  making sure that the wrapping will 

be the correct size.

Then I wrap my box. 

I tied my box with some orange twine.

 For a little whimzy I placed two sea shells

 on the ends of my bow.

Happy Wrapping!

Jewelry - Mixing the Old with the New

This necklace began with the desire to

make a copper bead 

tassel.

I used copper for the tassel bead and added

antique clay trading beads to give my tassel

 this "old world" look. 

I used antique clay trading beads 

throughout this necklace.

I also added bone trading beads, carved bone beads,

indian glass beads, hand blown glass beads,

 wooden beads and metal beads.

The finished necklace is a wonderful mix

 of old and new. 

It symbolizes our world

coming together.

I really like the way the old and new came

together so nicely.

This is a necklace that will look great with

 jeans or you can dress it up.

Baby's Birthday Necklace for Mommy

Jude gave this necklace to his Mommy 

for her birthday.

I made a pendant out of silver-plate.

Then I stamped Jude's name on the front

of the pendent and his birth date on the back.

The pendent hangs from a necklace made of tiny

blue and pearl seed beads.

Mixing the old with the new

 and keeping it simple. 

Inspiration from a Dress

Yesterday I went into my studio

I really wanted to create something.

Nothing was coming into my head.

I thought."You know, I have all 

these beautiful beads maybe I will

bead something."

I could not get inspired.

 So I went to my 

closet and pulled out this dress.

Now I'm inspired!

Color, texture and nature

that works.

This is the necklace I came up with.

It felt so nice to get back in the studio,

 it was fun to wear something new.

Inspiration can come from anywhere,

even your closet.

Driftwood Ideas

One day I was looking around my house thinking

(Actually I was cleaning) and 

I noticed that, well, my decorating 

needed a little change.

As you may or may not know I 

really like driftwood.

In past blogs I have made driftwood

mirrors and a driftwood arbor.

Those things, though wonderful,

 need a lot of driftwood. 

Today I will share with you

decorating ideas that only use one or

two pieces of driftwood.

For this lovely seashell and driftwood arrangement

I started with an antique wooden tray as my base

then I placed an interesting piece of

driftwood on my tray. 

Beautiful white shells and sea life were then placed

 on and around the driftwood.

I left a space in the corner of my tray

for a glass bottle which I filled with water

an added three philodendron leafs.

This arrangement is anchored with a fiber mat.

I added a piece of driftwood into the center of

 the arrangement that is sitting on my 

diningroom table.

My arrangement was okay.

Okay or fine is not good enough for me.

 I placed a piece of driftwood in front

 of my arrangement.

This signal piece of driftwood worked as an anchored 

for my arrangement.

Much better!

I had a lot of fun putting this arrangement 

together.

 I  used things I had sitting around the house

 to tell a story on this side table.

One piece of driftwood brought the 

whole arrangement together.

All you need is one piece of driftwood

with a little character then watch 

your arrangements come to life.

It's Not Just A Black Sweater

One of the many things I collect

 are antique buttons.

While going through my button stash one day I came 

across these beautiful silver and black glass buttons.

Remembering that I have a black sweater in my closet 

I retrieved it and took it to my studio.

 Some days we just get lucky.

 My antique buttons are the 

same size as the buttons on my sweater.

I took the plain plastic buttons off of my sweater and replaced

them with these pretty antique buttons.

Now my black sweater has pretty

and interesting buttons.