Creativity Bootcamp Day One

Day 1 was great! I feel like I got so much done. Not only did I meet the days challenge, but I also managed to situate myself with a photo editing solution for a problem that has been making me crazy. The new pc was not loaded with a program to edit photos, and was not compatible with software I have on hand. ...Yet one more mountain to climb. Anyway, I settled on Picasa, which seems to be good, ....for now anyway. The challenge theme for Day 1 is "ivory." My medium of choice is anything that can be recycled. What I have done is to create a Jewelry Tree.

I started with a twig, which I trimmed, and an old can of primer. I painted the entire surface with primer, then painted over that with an "ivory" latex paint. So far, I am recycling the twig, which I saved from a tree being trimmed, and using paints that I have had in storage. All "free!" Then, I had to go shopping. I bought one 25 foot roll of 18 gauge copper wire, which cost me $4.80. That was the only thing I had to purchase. I also had about 6 feet of a much thinner copper wire in my craft stash, which was salvaged from an electrical wire which is made up of several small strands held together by a coating. Cut the coating away, separate the strands.

Then, I got out some beads saved from a scrunchie I had purchased several years ago. The glass beads were a disaster to my hair, so I cut them all off and saved them. Never throw anything away!
Next, I studied the twig to determine if it had enough places to hang necklaces and earrings from. They never do, so I added a few. I began wrapping the twig with the 18 gauge wire, being careful to reinforce the tiny branches with doubled wire and wraps. I added the beads to the smaller wire, which I spiraled the ends of to slip over the larger wire, so it was attached on both ends of the beads.Where I wanted to add hanging places, I made a skinny loop of wire and wrapped it on the twig. I embellished the hangers with beads so that the jewelry would be supported.

In all, it took only about two hours of time, and cost was just $4.80. Not bad! Now, I just need to attach it to my wall. I have seen copper plated pipe hanging "tape" with pre-drilled holes. I can cut this and screw the jewelry tree to the wall using toggles.

Here is the full view of the tree hung on my wall fountain so that I could photograph it.