branching out

Do you remember my cemetery branch from like four months ago? Well, today I finally decided its destiny. 

That knob on the end looks like a fetal giraffe head. Or is it just me? 

For my base, I picked up a pine clock face from Michael's. I think it was $4.00-5.00. A bit more than I would usually spend, but I was pretty set on having a pre-drilled hole, mostly because I don't own a drill.

But I do own lots of pocket knives of varying sizes and blades, so my plan was to enlarge the hole via knife. My dad, who was an incredible woodworker, would be mortified, I'm sure. Also, I realize that sitting cross-legged on your bed and reaming a soft wood with a pocket knife isn't incredibly smart, but I made it through without any bloody incidents. Hopefully, you can do the same. 

It took about 20 minutes for me to enlarge the hole enough to fit the base of my branch. If you have a drill, it will take you like 3 seconds and will be the safer route. Lucky you. Do not look at my fingernails. I forbid it. 

After I gouged with my pocket knife a bit, I smoothed things out with rough-grained sandpaper wrapped around my index finger. There is, I'm sure, a tool for this as well, but not having said tool (whatever it may be), I found using my finger to be adequate. I do have a couple rough spots on my finger and thumb from the sandpaper though. Ugh, lame. 

I didn't make the hole too big because I wanted a snug fit for my branch's base. Once I had the hole finished, I secured the branch and the plaque with my trusty hot glue gun. I also glued a little rope loop to the plaque, so the whole shebang can be mounted on the wall. No pictures of that because for some reason I think it's safe to take pictures when a knife is in use but not when I'm dealing with heated glue. Go figure. 

So, the branch and base are one. After everything dried, I picked away the excess hot glue and decided I'd go with white for the base. Two coats did the job without completely obscuring the woodgrain. 

In the tradition of me revealing my piles of crap to you, here is the dresser-top mess I'm attempting to corral. It's seriously ridiculous. You can judge. I deserve to be judged on this one. Oh man, there's that bunch of keys I still need to incorporate into a project. Next time...maybe.

So, I mounted my branch above the offending dresser and began unloading necklaces like nobody's business.

I don't have a picture of the dresser-top end result because that's still a work in progress. But I did remove everything, clean it all, and organize it into groups. Buttons, bar soap, ribbons, perfume, friendship rings and bracelets, half-finished necklace projects, watches in need of batteries, bits of rope, small stuffed animals, random coins, and so on. Sigh. I've still got a long way to go, but this much, at least, has been accomplished!

If a branch isn't what you had in mind for displaying jewelry, how about an arrow rack?