Rust!

Ok - who knew you could actually manufacture your very own rusty things? Well you can and it's EASY! Following the instructions from Cloth Paper Scissors, the article written by Leslie Riley, my husband made some super fab rusty things for me this week.

Step 1 - select some brand new or old metal things to rust. Some will work better than others i imagine. What you want is as much iron as possible - ie not stainless steel.

Step 2 - find a suitable container. Like a large glass jar or a bucket. Do not use your favorite etched glass pitcher like my husband did here.

Step 3 - create the potion. Two parts bleach (like Clorox) and one part vinegar. Do this outside for the fumes and be careful with the bleach - you know, like it will bleach your clothes if you spill it on you. Better yet - get your husband to do this for you while you are out of the house. Remind him not to use favorite pitcher.

Step 4 - insert metal things. Adding a rusty or partially rusty item apparently makes this go faster. We threw in some toilet seat bolts we found in the garage that had a bit of rust.

Step 5 - wait 24 hours. Remove rusty things to some newspapers to dry. Husband used BBQ tongs. Do not rinse. We worked on the concrete patio - if you use a table top - protect it with plastic and paper.

Step 6 - since we have the icky rusy solution - why add more metal things and do another batch?

Step 7 - argue with husband over ruined favorite etched glass pitcher. Husband will say, "if it was so special why has it been sitting out here on the deck all winter?"

You know how that is, you have a beautiful bouquet of flowers that sit on the dining room table until the flowers are dead and a toxic green sludge has formed in the pitcher, so you carefully move it outside and promptly ignore it.

Step 8 - agree with husband and move on.....

So some notes about the whole process:

Using the rusty solution for a second batch? Not nearly as successful as the first batch - see here the results. Compared to the first batch - there is just a hint of rust. The first batch was so successful - my husband was reminded of the relics from the Titanic on the ocean floor. I guess there must be an intial chemical reaction between the bleach and the vinegar that gets the rusting started that you don't get with the second batch.

So off to the store for more bleach and vinegar to do the rest properly. We scoured the garage for random metal things that might look cool attached as limbs on the book doll bodies. Like a spring, some hinges and some large discs. See previous post HERE that explains what all this rusty stuff is for.

(So yeah - i finally figured out how to create a link to a nother page or site - so much cleaner than the whole URL spelled out!)

Happy Rusting!