I am an Artiste!

Well, possibly not an artiste (that’s right. Say it with an accent…), but I certainly finished up all of my pending crafts on a rainy Sunday.

In an effort to have things to post about, I’m going to separate them into two crafter (and because the second one may not be 100% totally finished as of yet… but it’s still super awesome).

Now, I know that by now my preferred design aesthetic won’t come as a shock, but allow me to reiterate.

I love steampunk. All things steampunk. The goggles and corsets, the jewel tones and metals, top hats and gears. . I loved everything about the show Firefly.

 I love the faux old engineering feel and the blend of futuristic and antique.

 

Just a random example....

Makes sense now, doesn’t it?

No? Oh well.

Anyway, I am also oddly sentimental about a few household items that I bought at an estate sale when I was in Jr High.

Whoa… that long ago? Holy shit!

Yeah, thanks.

Anywho, I bought a set of wind chimes for less than a dollar. At the time of purchase, they were just about rusted through, but I loved them. There were six high stepping horses tinkling softly in the wind, suspended from a fake horse shoe and vintage looking horse head. Now, I love the antique look; at the time, I just loved horses.  I’ve hung it up at every residence so far… Even my college apartment when my welcome mats were stolen with some regularity. As it would turn out, the thief probably assumed that the risk of contracting tetanus wasn’t worth the giggles of stealing a teenager’s wind chimes.

So, after all that me and my fifty cent wind chimes have been through, imagine my upset at finding that last winter’s snow finished them off. Of my six high stepping team, only four could be found/salvaged. The other two were carried off in the melt after the weight of the snow broke the ancient fishing line that suspended them.

Tear.

So there I was. With a choice.

I could either:

A) Toss the whole shebang into the trash and never look back

Or

B) Gather the broken pieces and ply my creative hand at breathing fresh life into one of my few outdoor decorations.

It’s not like I could wreck them further, so Option B it was.

(Whoops, nearly said Plan B, but that’s a whole different blog post)

So, here I give you my step by step process:

Step one: Spray paint salvaged pieces with Rustoleum. Now, me personally, I chose hammered copper. I liked the textured look and it allowed me to play with my steampunk fetish.

 

Step Two: Allow to dry. Patience is a virtue that I seem to be lacking.

Step Three: Forget about the project for a few days, trip over the pieces for a while and wait for inspiration to strike.

Step Four: Inspiration! I used a shit-ton of Mod Podge to affix assorted watch gears and parts to each of my remaining four Prancers.

Step Five: Patience, again. Not a personal strong suit. I think I need to start finding crafts where there isn’t so much waiting between bursts of inspiration.

As an aside, I really like the gears on my little Prancers. Even if my final wind chime project is an abject failure, I can still salvage them for something else. Maybe picture frame embellishments. Hmmm….

Step Six: Go to a craft store (but not Hobby Lobby for being back woods hicks and denying employees birth control coverage). Me, I went to Walmart… because that’s literally all we’ve got. Sorry. Purchase wire/string (I chose fishing line) and assorted odds and ends to decorate.

Step Seven: String em up! Add decorations and play with heights. Yay!

I know that you can’t really see in the itsy bitty pictures, but I used heavy metal beads as additional weight to keep my poor wind chimes from going too nuts in the breeze. I also had brass and gold beads, along with rose shaped gold buttons and one bead of a heart with wings.

Even though originally my little Prancers were all at the same height to clang together in the wind, I choose to stagger for a spiraled look. I’m not interested in the sound so much as the aesthetic, because let’s face it… the dulcet tones of sheet metal clanging together isn’t really soothing. Then again, maybe that’s just me.

I added a center strand of stone, left over beads and wing charms.

Step Eight: Hang up and enjoy!

(Though in all honesty, I’m probably going to move it to a window in my shed to be a little more protected from the elements)

It makes me smile everytime I walk past it, so I think that I can conclusively call this project a success….