106 Little Birds on Sticks

 

Our friends Jessica and Steven are getting married this weekend and way before all this buying a house/moving nonsense came up, I told her I would make the favors for her wedding.  She liked the idea of reclaimed tin birds on metal sticks.  It ended up taking me a lot more time to make these than I thought.  But that's always the way it is right?  I didn't want to rush, however, because I wanted them to be perfect for her. 

This is what our dining room looked like for the last 2 days while I was attaching the wires.  I set the wire with epoxy and they had to sit for 24 hours to set in a warm area.  While my studio has a heater, it is not warm all the time so I had to finish them inside. 

 

My first tests with attaching the wires was terrifying because the first brand of epoxy I bought wasn't strong enough.  Then I tried JB Weld.  While it worked, it was an ugly gray color and looked awful.  Finally, I got the idea to make a spiral out of the ends of the wires and then hammer them flat and sand them to allow a lot more surface area to glue.  Next, I bought some Gorilla Glue 2 Part Epoxy.

 

Amazing success!  The spiral in combination with the Gorilla Glue did the trick.  I know I went a little heavy handed on the epoxy, but I wanted to make sure it would stick.

Each bird is completely unique.  

I used everything from decorative tins to olive oil tins to cookie tins.  

 

I couldn't pick out a favorite.  Practically every one I thought, I like this one the best.  Then I would pick up the next one and say, no, I like this one the best.

Phew, she picked them all up today.

Now I can get back to packing because we signed the papers on our new house today and are moving on Sunday!  It's amazing how fast time goes by.  I can't believe we are nearly out of here.  I will really miss this house.  Every time I show it to a potential renter, I think, oh, man, I love my backsplash.  Oh, man, I love our new heat pump.  Oh, man, I love my studio! But now I am going to have a new house to love, love, love!