Silver and Ribbons and Beads- oh my!

I know I have been heavy into the ScoreBoards lately so thought I would put up a picture of a recycled project that I did. I am always finding these silver bread baskets in my local thrift stores.

As you may know if you have ever been in my house, I am a silver plate junkie. If I had been born in England a couple of centuries ago, I would have been a great scullery maid because I love polishing silver. These pieces can be used in so many ways. I use silver butter trays on the mantle in our bedroom (serving as a headboard right now) where I keep my often- worn jewelry. I especially love to collect items that have been engraved because I know there is a story behind every piece and it’s fun to try and imagine the story of how that particular piece wound up in my bathroom storing Q-tips!

So here’s what I did with the bread basket… you may choose to polish the piece before you work on it… or not. If you don’t, be prepared because it will tarnish at some point. I kind of like how that looks so mine is not polished. Basically I went through my ribbon scrap pile and found lengths in Christmas colors. I laid them out in an order that I liked and then also picked out a bunch of larger size beads. Starting at the top, I wove ribbon through the basket spokes. Where the ribbon ended, I put a dot of glue at the end and pressed it together with the other end. You can use a binder clip to hold both pieces together while the glue is setting.

Weave silver wire through the spines of the basket on the outside adding beads every couple of loops.

NOTE: You have probably figured out that this project should not be used to hold food due to the nature of the supplies. Cleaning would NOT be fun! So this project is recommended for decorative purposes only. I have some handblown glass ornaments that I usually display in the bowl. I find the textures and colors blend very well together. Does anyone else out there like silver like me? It’s a sickness!