detail:
So my mom asked for an earring tree for Christmas this year. Since 1987 has long passed, I figured it would be easier to make one than to actually buy one. I wanted it to be easy to hang post or earwire earrings without having to take the whole frame off of the wall. So I started experimenting with using some screen to make "leaves". After wrapping the edges in copper tape, I decided that wasn't going to be strong enough, so after I racked my brain for a couple of hours about how to make "leaves" with the screen, my husband came home and said "what about polymer clay"... I love him, I was starting to think I'd have to scrap the whole idea...
At any rate, here are the technical details:
- The base is a gallery style (1.5" thich) masonite board I picked up at hobby lobby. Just a word of warning, it's HARD to pound nails/tacks into masonite board - the back of the board has some little divets, but I plan on covering the backside with felt.
-The paint is acrylic and the tree is delta foil (pressure sensitive mylar) with a few peices of copper leaf to fill in some of the gaps. Sealed with several coats of satin finish poly.
- The oval frames were cut out with cookie cutters - I tried to use leaf shape cutters, but they proved to be too small and fussy to work with, especially with the screen in between.
-I sandwiched a piece of screen between two oval frames with some liquid poly. {I cut the screen with a circle punch and squished it into an oval form}. Then I pressed the frames between two texture plates and brushed them with mica powders.
-Also, picked up some copper tacks at the hardware store to hang the leaves and put in a row of small gold cup hooks for neclaces/bracelets.
I still plan to make/buy a jewelry roll to hang in the back of the peice. The idea is that when she travels, she can grab the roll, throw in a couple of the ovals and be set. Plus she can keep some of her nicer "special occasion" jewelry hidden away!
