2014 WoW Christmas Ornament Swap: Set No 3 & 4

YAY!!! I have now received my first set of ornaments too! They travelled a long, long way, from Dianne in Minnesota, USA to me here in Fjord Norway!

I almost cried when I unwrapped Dianne’s stunning pieces:

Dianne chose to make three similar sets, one for me, one for herself and one for her second swap buddy Iris in New York (state), USA:

I love them so much, and I’m sure they’ll become treasured heirlooms for me and my family!

The little Christmas fairy is in fact singing to my heart, so much so that I think she is NOT going in the box after Christmas, I need to keep her with me all year! 😀

Dianne has told me quite a lot about creating these ornaments: 

I picked up my tart tins at local thrift shops and garage sales. Living in Minnesota with a large percentage of Norwegian immigrants of old, the tins are plentiful.

Because the tins were shiny and I wanted a rustic look, I “aged” them in a rusting solution I use for metal.

One of the ornaments has chunky pale cold glitter made from pulsing broken vintage glass tree ornaments in a small electric chopper I keep just for this purpose. Knowing I do this, people have begun giving me their broken ornaments!

Tiny dimensional vignettes is one of my favorite things to do in candy tins, so I adapted this to the tart tins.

Finally, the fairy was inspired by the nesting scalloped tins that reminded me of a skirt when put together in reverse. Must credit Cicely Barker and her Christmas fairy!

Thank you for this fun swap. I hope you enjoy your tins!

Dianne also sent me some “before” pictures when she first started working on her tart tins, these were left in her special solution for about 10 minutes:

That really is CRAZY!!! Can you believe it? Only a few minutes in the solution and they look like that? Imagine the possibilities….

I had myself been experimenting with recipes for aging metal but I had not seen anything like the results Dianne had before, so of course I asked her what was the secret… 

I would gladly share my recipe, if I had written it down! I will do some research and see if it can be replicated. Like you I used a slow acting recipe initially. But being impatient, I started adding stuff and pretty soon it was working like crazy. This was a year ago however, and I still have the batch sitting in the garage for whenever needed.

Some of you might remember that I have relatives in Minnesota? Dianne is my highly dedicated field agent in Minnesota, and her research has helped me learn so incredibly much about my relatives, and she has helped me get in touch with several of my cousins that I did not even know about before she started researching! So when Dianne says “research”, she means it!!!

I did a little research and came up with this site that has good info and photos relating to aging metal.

http://www.lucydesignsonline.com/2013/08/how-i-give-metal-and-wire-pieces-aged.html?m=1

When I tried a similar recipe last year, it did not say to soak the metal in vinegar for a day to etch it. So after a couple of days my metal was only just beginning to age. So I started adding new ingredients. First straight bleach, and then a compound I read about called Root Clear. It’s main ingredient is copper sulfate pentahydrate. Finally I added hydrogen peroxide. Within minutes my metal pieces started aging. I removed them when they looked “old” enough, in 3 to 5 minutes, and let them dry in the sun on a large cardboard.

I kept my solution in a sealed tub and decided to see if it still worked this year. For good measure I added some bleach, a bit more Root Clear, then added Hydrogen Peroxide which caused everything to bubble. It worked!

So if I were to begin anew, I think I would first soak my metal in vinegar and salt to etch it for maybe one day. Then I would add bleach, Root Clear, stir it up, add my metal, and finally a good splash of Hydrogen Peroxide until it bubbles up. Wear acid resistant gloves and a mask, and work out of doors to prevent issues with these corrosive substances.

As in the web site information above, results are mixed depending on the metal. Some of my pieces started turning pink in places from the copper sulphate. Others, primarily aluminum, didn’t age well.

Hope you find this helpful!

So this post is not only presenting the wonderful ornaments Dianne made, with some details on how she made them, it is also presenting TWO new techniques to help create fabulously aged metal and vintage looks to items like these :-D:

1. How to make chunky glass glitter from broken glas ornaments
2. How to create and use a rusting solution 

Thank you from the bottom of my fairy heart Dear Dianne for your beautiful ornament gift as well as all the other contributions!

Did you miss out on the planning of this swap? This is what my swappers signed up for back in September:

• Each swap is for a set of 3 ornaments. Either 1 tart tin swap or 1 cookie cutter swap, swapped with one swap buddy
• Deadline November 15th to craft your ornaments, take pictures and get the packages ready
• Send pictures to me of the finished ornaments
• Alert me when the swapped ornaments arrive at their new home

Did you enjoy this post? If you are not already a confirmed follower of Wings of Whimsy, please click “Follow”  to register and make sure you don’t miss future posts on WoW:

WordPress-users: in the top left corner of your browser window to register your WordPress-account

Other readers: in the bottom right corner of your browser window to register your email-address

Follow me on Pinterest: