bowl – A Smith of All Trades

Record Bowl Pendant Light

March 27, 2013March 24, 2013 Jessica Smith

Another spring break project — a record bowl pendant light. I made record bowls last year and again last fall to sell at my trash to treasure craft fair. They are fun and easy to make, and they can be turned into awesome things even after you’re done! For example, a pendant light.

This project was fun for me because I got to learn how to unwire and rewire a light.

I have this light socket I saved from a hanging lantern I had in my room growing up. I think it is from IKEA, but if not I know they have similar light sockets.

I picked a particularly curvy record bowl for the light, but I needed to get the wire through the h0le in the record so I needed to unwire it.

I unscrewed everything and carefully detached the two wire ends from the screws holding them to the socket.

With the wires free, I was able to feed them through the hole in the center of the record.

I reattached them back to the socket and added the plastic cap back on.

It was that easy! I strung it up in the rafters of our basement to see how it would hang — not too bad 🙂

If you are a music lover or have a bar, these would be really cool for you to make.

I don’t think I’ll actually hang this in our house because it doesn’t quite go, but I might be making a lot more of these for my fair next year.

Garden

Fishbowl Planter

June 18, 2012June 20, 2012 Jessica Smith

I’m jumping on the succulent/cactus wagon. I was shopping for plants with my dad a few weeks ago and saw the tiniest cactus plant for $2.50 — It was super cute and I just had to have it. It sat in its planter for a week or so before I figured out where I wanted to plant it. I finally decided on planting it in a large fish bowl. I’d seen other people try this with their plants and it looks so cool!

This project is really simple. All you need is potting soil, as many succulents as you’d like to stuff into a fishbowl, and the bowl itself. I stuck with my lone cactus.

I filled the bowl with a ton of potting soil, then created a hole in the middle for the plant. Once my cactus was good and planted (and watered), I stuck it in the middle of our bay window. It looks really nice there — I especially like that the sight line outside isn’t obstructed because the bowl is glass.

I might add rocks to the top of the soil, but for now I left it as is.

If you are a plant killer, this is a great way to bring the outdoors inside. It’s pretty hard to kill these little guys!

Craft Projects, Jewelry, Quick and Easy Crafts

Record bowl and bangle bracelet

February 12, 2012February 21, 2012 Jessica Smith

A few years ago I participated in a Trash to Treasure craft fair at which I showcased my bottle cap creations (Who knew bottle cap earrings would be such a big hit?). I noticed a vendor selling bowls made from records and since then I’ve wanted to try to make the infamous record bowl. THEN, I saw a post on Pinterest that begged, “No more record bowls.” I still wanted to try this project, but I figured I’d make the trite project a little more exciting by including a how-to

Since the only records I own are framed Springsteen records — and there was no way I was gonna melt those — I bought two records at the thrift store for super cheap.

Those are some super exciting records, huh? Now, let’s get melting.

For both the record bowl and bracelet, I preheated the oven to 300 degrees. For the bowl, I placed the record on a glass casserole dish and waited for it to curl. It didn’t take long — maybe 2 minutes.

Since it didn’t take too long to start to curl, I was able to take the record out of my oven without using a mitt or tongs or anything. I was hot, but not painfully hot. I immediately placed the hot record over a glass bowl and formed it into a shape I liked. Within 30 seconds or so, the record was firm again. Project complete!

The hubby was surprisingly impressed by this project. I guess he doesn’t frequent craft blogs and Pinterest to know that everyone and their mom has tried this project. Oh well. I never pass up a chance to melt stuff.

Now onto the more exciting project: the record bangle bracelet.

For this project I cut out an arch in the record, sanded down the rough edges, and placed it on the glass casserole dish. Once it melted, I wrapped the melted strip of record around a glass cup I had in my kitchen.

Once the bracelet was sturdy I tried the bracelet on to see how it looked.

I liked the bracelet a lot and it was very comfortable to wear, but I thought it was missing something. So, I added a flashy little silver and black button. Perfecto!

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