The Bohemian Art Spirit

Recycle your old keys and turn them into tree ornaments, it just takes wire, cheese cloth and Gesso or white paint!!

Do you ever wonder what to do with all the old keys you have around the house?  Well, being in Real Estate, you can only imagine how many keys I can collect if I just pass the word around. 

  Two years ago,  I made these window ornies  to give away for my office friends and family, they were inspired by a project I saw in Cath's blog, but I guess like everything else, they took their own turn. I wanted to make wings but ran out of cheese cloth, I ended up with hearts! They are easy to make, you just need wire, Gesso and varnish. You might want to put some glitter at the end.
Once your wire is shaped, cut the cheese cloth in long narrow strips and wrap the surface without having to secure it, or you can make a knot at the end. When you are ready to apply the Gesso, the brush itself starts to separate the cloth, at this point you can move it making spaces to show the face or just leaving areas uncovered, it looks at the end like fine lace. Let it dry overnight and varnish it with acrylic sealer.
You can insert smallish items, I had some cabs and I am making others with keys that were given to me, but I think by itself, is much better specially if you leave enough holes on the side.
I love working with Gesso, it is not only a great substance to prime a canvas, but makes a non oil surface into a blank canvas, I was going to paint these, but I figure, they look okay the way they are already.
(In case you wonder about Gesso, it resembles paint, but is thinner and dries hard. Gesso is applied with a brush and must dry before the surface can be painted. It was first created for use in painting, in order to give the surface the right properties to receive paint. But for this project I imagine any kind of white latext paint would do the job)

Using cheese cloth stained it with tea or coffee. (if you are going to paint it later on don't treat it. The keys were painted with acrylics because they looked too new. It only takes some cheap florist wire, gold and silver and acrylic varnish with a touch of glitter and micro-beads.