Small Jewelled Mirror

A friend painted a small cupboard for me as I wasn’t brave enough and then after we agreed a price refused payment as it was her first chalk paint project for someone other than herself and wasn’t sure about it, even though I was well chuffed!

So I gave her my used once sanding mouse and pack of papers,  as I don't think I’ll ever be doing any sanding again and she’s been doing all her sanding by hand.  It really didn’t seem enough, so as she said off hand that she’d love one of my jewelled mirrors, that’s what I decided to do as a way of a “thank you”

The square, 25cm x 25cm, copper framed mirror cost £2.99 from Poundstretcher a couple of years ago and the various jewels, embellishments and beads I’d got anyway, left over from other projects.

It was just a matter of just sticking it all on and the perfect excuse for using all the dregs in my old E800 and B-7000 tubes.

I started out pretty symmetrically, starting with the metal leaves, from an old, necklace, painted and varnished one summer with Marc, as were the metal flowers.  I think the roses were in a sale from The Works.  The colours were rather garish so I sprayed them a while back with a off white coloured paint.

Once the main bits were on I just filled in the gaps randomly, trying to add a few layers as I went.

I think it’s turned out pretty well. I just wish I had some more bits and pieces of broken jewellery as there’s not that much variation. 

What I would have really liked was so add a few white and yellow daisies to the top layer, but I just couldn’t justify the prices on eBay etc. There were some charms, but they had an attached loop that would have needed cutting off, but what if it didn’t snip off cleanly?

I always look in charity shops or Poundland, but small flowery jewellery seems to be hard to come by at the moment. To justify breaking up a piece, I would need at least ten flowers/leaves per item for between £1 – £2 ……… but wait …..

I couldn’t believe it, I was looking through a box of bits for something completely different and found another 9/10 small, metal cream flowers with a pearl in the middle, I couldn’t believe it, not daisies, but they still worked ……..

I added them here and there, to add the extra layer I wanted and then while I was at it found some gold rimmed pearls which I added to the centre of all the enamel flowers.  I don’t suppose many would have noticed the extra fiddle fart, but for me, it was the final touch I needed. I also added small pearls to cover up the holes (not shown in photos).

This has now just about completely cleaned me out of flowers (plastic, metal or otherwise) so I am guessing it’s going to be a long time until I can gather up enough stuff to make another one …… but you never know.