Project Butter Knife.

Starting now, each month I hope to feature at least one little project that I have recently tackled.   

Up first, butter knives.  One month ago this was hanging in my 1930's basement.  Yep, 12 hand-dipped knives taped to twine, drying on the line.  What you can't see is the time I started this little exercise.  yawn.  In my opinion, it's never too late or, in this case, too early to tackle a project {was it one or two when I started???}.  Who cares!  Work now, sleep later.  The results were worth it.  Of course, I'm a stickler for details and refused to rest until every last drip was swiped away.  No dried drippy paint drips on the ends my butter knives!  

Here's the how to.

• buy as many vintage flatware pieces as you need.  Through divide-and-conquer my twin and I scoured every antique, vintage, thrift, hand-me-down and junk store in the 500 mile radius.  Not really, but we looked EVERYWHERE.  Of all the flatware in all the bins, it was the butter knife which proved most elusive.  But, at about $.05 a knife, it was the gas that cost us the most!  :)
• wash the flatware.  And, polish if you like.  Lesa polished our knives to sparkling awesomeness.
• pick a color, buy paint.  In our case, pink.  The color of the night.
• find a proper spot and arrange/assemble your drying area.  I opted for twine and painters tape, but any number of things would work.  Clothespins, binder clips, scotch tape...  It can get a bit messy so pick a good spot {outside, ideally}.  Drips on the floor didn't matter in my basement and I can be lazy, so I didn't bother to put down a drop cloth.  The little dots are a fun reminder of the project.   

 
• have lots of papertowels.  My fingers were covered in paint from wiping all the drips.  Again, it didn't bother me 'cause I can also be messy  {messy + lazy = billy webb loves me}.  :)
• open paint, mix paint, dip flatware in paint, and hang each piece on the line.  This part is fast.  It's the after party that can take some time.  As I mentioned, the paint will run off the end, so you decide on your comfort level with drips. In the end, I can't say you would really even notice them if I had let the drips dry.  I never had time for a test run and I didn't want to take the risk and wiped the drips every few minutes.   
• tip:  don't wait until the last possible minute like I did to paint.  Not that it was by choice, there was just sooo much to do that I opted to save this for last and even nix it, if necessary {never!}.  
• allow plenty of time for the paint to dry and cure.  You don't want dinner guests with painted fingers!  Since my knives were painted only a few hours before the event, I was worried they wouldn't dry in time.  So as soon as daylight broke, I took the line outside to dry in the sun.  It worked!  Once they were totally dry, I cleaned them one more time, focusing mostly on the blade with a quick wipe to the handle. 

 

I LOVED how the knives looked on our table.  A necessity?  No.  But there's ALWAYS room for great design.