Spoon Ring…a 2 hour project

Tags

silver plate project, silver spoon jewelry, silver spoon ring, spoon ring

Value Village spoon cache

So, I’m quasi-retired. I’ll admit it. I miss teaching. I asked the new art teacher (my amazingly positive and sweet replacement, Liz) if I could do a jewelry workshop for some of her kids. Needless to say, she snapped up the offer. So I went to “work” today, and prepped a small demo for 5 kids. And they were awesome! Keen, motivated and skilled. Here is a small step-by-step demo of making a ring from an old silver or silver-plated spoon.

Value Village spoon cache

Cut the bowl off

Bend the handle

Rubber hammer

It’s now a ring

Expanded ring

Polish

Cut the bowl off

Pick a silver or silver-plated spoon that has an interesting handle design. Use a hacksaw or jeweler’s saw to cut the bowl off of the handle. Cut slowly-use light pressure. Save the bowl for another project.

Bend the handle

Using your finger, bend the handle around a mandrel or large metal rod. If the silver is too hard, it may need to be annealed (softened) by heating the metal with a propane (BQ) torch until the silver glows.

Rubber hammer

If one cannot bend the ring with one’s fingers, use a rubber or leather mallet. If the narrow end of the ring is rough, it should be filed very smooth.

It's now a ring

Check to make sure the ring fits the finger.

Expanded ring

If the ring is snug, the ring can be pried open a bit to make a larger size.

Polish

Polish the ring with a buffing cloth, silver polish, or a buffing wheel. It’s that easy.

Easy Chocolate Truffles

Tags

baking, candy making, chocolates, easy to make, ganache, truffles

‘K. It’s Easter. Easter and chocolate are synonymous, right!? So I thought I’d do a step by step photo recipe of our morning in the kitchen. One of my nephews, Kaden, did all the hand rolling of the truffles. Great job, too! The first half of the recipe (so easy) should be done the night before.

Easy ingredients

Heat whipping cream

Adding melted chocolate

Cream ‘n chocolate

mix cream and chocolate

well mixed

Thick, chewy ganache

scooped ganache

sugar and cocoa

Rolled in sugar/cocoa mixture

Dipping cocoa coverd balls

Wax papered cookie sheet

Mmm

Cocoa covered and re-dipped chocolates

Truffle Recipe
makes about 3 dozen

2 cups Whipping Cream( a little less or more depending on how stiff you want it)
400 grams of Belgium Chocolate (Wal-Mart!) (sorry, Ash)
Zest of one large orange (optional)
1/2 Tablespoon of Vanilla. (optional)

Easy ingredients

Supplies

wax paper, cookie sheet
measuring cup, spatula
zester, 1 quart saucepan
2 forks, teaspoon

Step by Step

Part 1
1. Pour whipping cream into a saucepan. Bring to slow boil, about 2 minutes. Turn off heat.

Heat whipping cream

2. Chop chocolate and melt in the microwave for about 2 minutes, or until melted and runny. Stir to ensure it is entirely melted, no lumps.

Cream 'n chocolate

3. Pour the melted chocolate into the whipping cream, add vanilla and zest, and stir until combined well. About 2 minutes.

mix cream and chocolate

well mixed

4. Put the entire mixture, now called ganache, into the fridge to set (usually over night) or cool it in an ice water bath for a couple of hours.

Thick, chewy ganache

Part 2

1. Combine 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup cocoa and sprinkle over wax-papered cookie sheet.

sugar and cocoa

2. Remove the cold, thick ganache from the fridge and scoop out about a teaspoon of it.

scooped ganache

3. Cover your hands with the cocoa mixture, and roll the spoonful of ganache in your palms until it is almost round (truffle shape). Roll the chocolate truffle in the cocoa mix.

Wax papered cookie sheet

4. If you want to cover the truffles in a chocolate shell, melt more chocolate in the microwave until very hot and add a few chunks of solid chocolate to cool it down… (called tempering to make the coating shiny). Using 2 forks, dip the ganache balls (cocoa covered or not) into the newly melted chocolate. Let the chocolate drip off and put the chocolates on wax paper to set.

Cocoa covered and re-dipped chocolates

5. Keep the chocolates in the fridge or eat within a couple of days. Not too hard to do!

Let there be soap

Tags

hobbies, soap, soap making

For my friend, Charmalee…I’ve posted a “how to” make soap. I will be adding a PowerPoint that can be downloaded as soon as I take more photos.

SUPPLIES

Have your supplies all ready

•a large metal stock pot
• electric 8 cup blender
•2 large measuring cups
•digital weight scale up to 3 lbs.
•candy thermometer
•rubber spatula
•gloves
•towel & wash cloth
•any heavy flexible plastic mold: yogurt containers, gladware, soap molds…

EASY BLENDER RECIPE FOR GOAT’S MILK SOAP

Goats for milk

6 oz Olive oil
6 oz Palm oil
6 oz Coconut oil
3.5 oz Water
2.5 oz Lye
3.5 oz Goat’s milk

THE PROCESS

Heating oils

Important: Lye burns. ALWAYS use eye goggles and well-fitting clothes. No phone, pets or children.

• Do not get distracted.

1. Have all supplies together and easily accessible.
2. Measure all oils by weight, and add to a very large pot. A double boiler is significantly safer. Heat oils until just melted. Remove from heat. Set aside.
3. Weigh the water and put it in a large wide mouth container.
4. Put on gloves as the lye (even the fumes) can burn your skin,
5. Measure lye carefully. Add the lye very carefully to the water, never in reverse! Stir slowly until lye dissolves. It will get extremely hot. It is ready to use at 110-125 degrees.
6. Cool the oils to approximately 110-125 degrees.
7. Pour the melted oils into the blender pitcher.
8. Put the lid on the blender pitcher, and turn blender on low. Slowly pour the lye solution into the melted oils while the blender is on low. Avoid splashes.
9. The soap will “TRACE” fairly quickly. Stop blending when the soap looks like pea soup, but not as thick as pudding.
10. Measure cold, slushy goat’s milk into a large measuring cup.
Add icy goat’s milk to the oil and lye mixture. Blend until JUST pudding consistency.
11. Blend additives, essential oils, herbs etc. for a few seconds.

IT IS READY TO POUR

Select your molds

1. Pour the thick soap mixture, which is hot and caustic, into the molds.
2. To avoid an ashy white coating from developing on the soap, cover the soap’s surface with plastic wrap.

BEDTIME

1. Quickly cover the soap with a towel so the heat stays in.
2. Let it sleep overnight.
THEN, you can peek.
3. The soap should be a solid, waxy bar.
*****If it is at all liquidy, something has gone wrong. Do not touch, as it usually uncured lye. To rescue the batch it can be recooked in a crock pot for about an hour. *******

FINALLY

Soap curing on a cookie sheet

1. Remove the soap from the mold.
*******If the soap is stuck in a mold, I freeze it for a few hours. Let the soap get to room temperature, and it pops out!**********
2. Put the soaps on a cookie sheet for up to 3 weeks to cure and dry.

Oval celtic soap

Goat's milk starfish soap

Cards

Tags

cards scrapbooking photos

Well, I like the photos that we took in Thailand so the next logical, albeit another creative step, was to do something with the images. Yep, got the ol’ trusty paper cutter out, and sliced up 100 sheets of card stock for mounting the photos. I bought 150 card sized envelopes at the local, “Have I got a deal for you,” store, Welk Mart, for $3.00. Eeeek, such a deal.
One evening plus a bit of this morning resulted in 100 fabulous memories that I will now share with my friends.
Oh, and I’m a bit of a paper lover freak, so for the last hour or so I have just stared at this lovely heaping pile of cards, with each note neatly tucked into its complementary envelope. It’s sort of hard to stop making cards, so I guess my OCD is showing again. Oh, well.

Cut 12x 12 card stock into a 7″ x12″ strip

Cut the 7″x12″ wide strip to a 10″ length and fold the strip in half, to make the card.

Attach photo to folded card using 4 small snipettes of double-sided tape

Beautiful stack of filled envelopes

Coloured paper envelopes inserted with photo cards

Ta Da!