This one here's a little wacky. I was asked this week to make a copy of this ring for someone playing Elvis. Oddly enough, this was work related (don't ask).
Just in case you're not up on your Elvis lore, he had this motto, TCB (Taking Care of Business), and the lightning bolt meant "in a flash." (If you're interested in a ring like this of your very own, check out this site).Why not just shell out the 20 clams and buy that ring, right? Welll... we needed it for filming the very next day and we really wanted it in "gold," sooo... Heeeere's Kelly!
I was initially stumped about how to make it. I'm not really good with detailed cut outs, especially on a tiny level, so... ick.
And then I had a brilliant idea: shrink plastic! (The stuff used to make "Shrinky Dinks.") I could cut it out when it was big and then shrink it down to size. Great! But... the gold? What to use for gold? Have you ever noticed how gold paint never really looks like actual gold? It looks like gold crayons. More brown than yellow. Hrrrm. Then I thought: gold leaf! I've never used it before, and I hear it can be a total nightmare, but... oh, what the heck!
So I cut it the TCB logo and the ring part out of shrink plastic, shrunk it down, then gold leafed (leaved? left?) that sucker. Voila:
Yet another little project that I spent waaaay too much time on!
Gold leaf is weird. It was also my first time using shrink plastic (shocking, I know) and we had a good ol' time watching it curl and uncurl in the toaster oven. I had some troubles gluing it together, but I think it's good enough for its intended purpose, so let's call it "Done."
Thank you. Thankyouverymuch!
love,
kelly
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7 comments:
Totally funny. But I think gold leaf is just a noun. I believe the verb is gild. Which totally doesn't look like a word.
HAHAHAHA!! Bonnie, your comment made me spit my water out laughing!
Duuude -- I was totally joking when I said "leafed!" (and "leaved" and "left" too!)
I was trying to be funny, but I guess I missed. Whoops! Thanks for cracking me up, though.
I know you were joking about "leafed" but it made me think. And then I had to do research to figure out for sure that gilding was done with gold leaf on small things as well as big things like statues. [I like to make sure before I open my mouth!]
They just regilded this statue in Salem and hoo-boy is that thing shiny and yellow. Just like my tooth.
Elvis rocked and your ring rocks! How did you get the actual ring part to shrink curved? You should be very proud that you did so well on your first try with the shrink plastic. I usually have a 50% casualty rate.
I did some reading about the shrinky business before I made mine... you have a 10 second window to bend the plastic when it comes out of the oven. It's hot, so be careful!
I used a glue stick to curl the shrink around (it was about the same size as the finger the ring needed to fit) and it worked like a charm!
As for this one coming out so well, I think that it helped that I immediately covered the thing in gold leaf. I'm not sure an attempt where I care about the image will be such a success. I'll let ya know when I try again!
Do you have any interest in selling this ring? I love it! All the others I find online have too long of a lightening bolt or look manly. Yours is just perfect! Thanks :)
Kim -- Sorry, but this ring went to the guy who played Elvis. Good luck in your TCB quest!
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