I love the way this silver is displayed in mason jars for the table setting Silver displayed in rusty springs from French Larkspur--it's very pretty, but I would be nervous about ruining my silver but touching the oxidized metal! Maybe you could cover the interior with fabric or lace to protect the silver? | I have been trying to think of a nice way to display my silver, a lovely surprise that my grandma bequeathed to me this year at Christmas. --I don't have any kind of aurmoire or other similar display, and my cabinets are not ideal either (my childhood home has beautiful overhead cabinets with glass doors! sigh) For now, I have the box that the silver came in (the one my grandma gave me), opened and sitting on top of an end table--but it is not a great way to see the pretty detailing in the daffodil pattern. Eventually I'd like to polish my set and supplement it with some of the pieces I've found online. I love this advertisement for my Grandma's silver pattern that I found for sale on amazon. It reads: "Lilting new design that has more brides agreeing 'Its the thing to own!" Is it sad that my first thought, delight aside, was that the word "lilting" would never appear in an advertisement today. One of my favorite things about silver is the way that it can tarnish and still look so lovely! Sometimes that patina is even nicer than the polished variety. When my Grandma gave me her silver-plated flatware, I decided to frame a few pieces with that unpolished look intact (I plan to polish and use the rest!). After some thinking, I remembered a frame that I purchased for some DIY halloween decorations last year and decided to revamp it a little. I saw this framed display on pintrest from A Perfect Gray---and thought it was so beautiful, that i must give it a shot! I especially love the way the gold in the frames picks up the tarnish in the silver. (oh and how cute is that little fork?) I even have a space just like this, so I that may even steal that idea! with a few modifications, of course! I decided to use burlap and fabric to revamp my ce |
With the frame completed, I could concentrate on creating the backing that would hold my silver. I decided to try and preserve my materials (so that I could take this apart and reuse, just in case)--so if you are less material-concsious, I would suggest using mod-podge or some other similar sealent to attach the burlap and fabric to the frame backing. In my "thrifty" state-of-mind, I used clear packing tape to hold the fabric together. | This old black plastic frame is from Walmart. I purchased it around Halloween time for some spooky art projects. Needless to say, I abused it and it fell off the wall (I continually make the mistake of trusting wall mounting tape...it doesn't really seem to work for anything that weighs more than a poster--I'm not sure how I used to hang so many things in my dorm room except that maybe the concrete walls were more susceptible to the sticky glue pads...ha!) I decided to paint it prior to gluing it together, for some un-remembered reason,and after making it more difficult for myself than necessary, I recommend gluing first. To "antique" the frame, I started with my darkest colored paint, the purple, which I selected to add a bit of warmth and dimension--to try and make the frame look less plastic. You could probably also use brown or red to accomplish this. Next I added (a lot of) gold paint on top. (Originally I planned on using silver metallic paint, but I still can't seem to find it anywhere!) I purposefully glopped the paint into cracks in the frame, and tried to paint on the sides and edges in patches to make it look more natural and "weathered". Finally, I finished the paint by highlighting in white. I tried to make sure not to use too much of the white in one place--since I wanted it to highlight and not overwhelm the frame. After painting, I added mod-podge to the frame and then immediately began sanding down a few of the places (corners and various patches so as to make it look weathered. A bit of a warning, since I did use a plastic frame, and they aren't really meant to be sanded, and so I removed quite a bit of paint and made a huge mess at this step...so lay down some paper! (or an old magazine, like I frequently use) After I was done sanding these, I hot-glued the frame together (I ended up painting over the glue with black...and have recently been thinking about purposely decorating the frame corners with hot glue "vines"---perhaps I'll save that project for later. |
To decorate the back of the frame, start by cutting your burlap. I recommend testing the length by wrapping it before cutting (so that you don't end up with too little or too much!) You can also tape down the arm support (if you plan on hanging your frame. When cutting your burlap, try to cut a straight line between the squares--if your cut is not straight, the fabric will fray! Once your burlap is securely in place, make sure your lines are straight in the front (if you've used mod-podge, it should be wet enough to allow a minimum of adjusting, and the tape is easy enough to readjust, as needed. If you are using mod-podge, add a top-coat layer to the burlap covered frame to hold it in place, prevent fraying, and make it sticky enough to add your fabric layer. If you are securing your fabric layer with tape (which, after doing it this way, I do not recommend). You can add "double-sided" tape by folding a piece in thirds and sticking it to itself and then to the burlap. Press the fabric firmly to stick. Then add another piece of tape to the back of the frame. If you're wisely using mod-podge, sandwich the fabric with sealant by adding a coat to the burlap and coat to cover. I also added a little bit of twine to the largest spoon, and looped it through the backside of the fabric. After messing with my display several times, I had to add more tape to keep the fabric in place--next time I will use mod-podge to secure the edges, since I really hate the way the tape looks....of course adding in extra tape would not have been necessary had I decided on a way to display the silver before trying to secure it in place. So again, I recommend testing things out before you make anything permanent. | Tape the raw edge of the fabric to the frame (or, use mod-podge to get a permanent seal) and wrap the burlap around the frame. Use tape to keep the burlap in place, but try to hide it on the backside of the frame. It's okay if some gaps remain in the wrapping, but center those messy areas in the back so they are not visible. Now that you've got your back covered, tape or glue down any raw edges (if you feel so inclined). Now to add the silver to the frame, I sewed fishing line to the fabric portions. A note here; if mod-podging, you may want to sew the fabric first and then lay it on the burlap so that the fabric is not so stiff as to break your needle. Arrange your silver on the fabric before sewing to figure out how you'd like it displayed...otherwise, if you're hasty like I am, you may have to take the stitching apart a few times before it looks right. I recommend adding the fishing line directly below the widest part of your silver, in this case, the spoon ladle. Also, if you loop the fishing line a few times loosely, leaving the needle attached, you can easily tighten and knot the fishing line after slipping the silver through your loose loop. I attempted to hide my knot on the wrong side of my fabric, but since I'd already attached it, the knot ended up on the "right side"--but I don't think it's too obnoxious as long as the ends are well trimmed. It really depends on how anal-retentive you are; for instance, I must have fixed my stitches three or four times in order to get the silver to lie straight--and it's still, annoyingly, a little crooked. I eventually discovered that if you loop the needle through the same entry hole, it will be relatively straight--also try not to stitch your silver too close to the edges of the fabric, unless you are planning on sealing the edges with mod-podge, since the weight of the silver will strain the fabric and make the edges curl up. |