handmade Hello Photography + Art + Design Pip-Life

How-To-Do-It : Your Best Angle Brooches

November 23, 2012

This is a project I made for my Good Stuff Holiday Guide! You can find heaps more cute things to make and gift betwixt its pages. Go here to read it! It’s totally free and you don’t have to download or sign up or anything whack like that!

(Also: thanks Veggie Mama and Cuteable for the Good Stuff honourable mentions!)

Make Some Your Best Angle Brooches

one small plank of 5mm thick balsa wood (ours was 1m x 9.15cm)
a cutting mat
a sharp Stanley knife
a metal ruler
acrylic paints (I used cheap student paints!) : you could try metallics, neons, pastels… whatever looks ace to you
small paint brush
masking tape
brooch backs
super glue

Makes 20 brooches at least!

Use your Stanley knife and ruler to very carefully (please don’t hurt yourself!) cut your balsa wood into triangle shapes.  Cut atop your cutting mat so you don’t mess up your work surface.

The triangles don’t have to be perfect or equilateral unless you are a total geometry nut.  They can be the same basic triangle shape, or you can go a bit wild.  You could even make other shapes, if you are super fancy. Cut the shapes you like.

If your edges are a bit scratchy, once you’ve cut your shapes,  use some fine sandpaper to even them out, or slice them neater with your knife.  You will find that cutting with the grain makes for smoother edges.

Once you have cut all your shapes out, you need to get them ready to paint.  Take your masking tape and apply tape to the triangle shape, so that the edge of the tape creates a ‘border’ for your paint, making a nice neat edge.

Paint your triangles in the colours you like.

Let them dry overnight.

Now flip them over and glue the brooch backs neatly into place.  Don’t glue your fingers.  Try and keep the brooch back nice and straight and avoid gluing the closing/opening mechanism.
Ta-dah!  You’re done!  Gift them to rad people! 🙂

Hope you like making these!

x Pip

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