Welcome to Day #2 of 30 Days of DIY Designer Ornaments.

Today, we’re staying with the industrial look, with an Art Deco twist. So if you haven’t picked up the wire yet for yesterday’s ornament, toss a few more things in your hardware store basket.

Hardware Deco will add shine to your tree.

Hardware Deco ornaments are easy to make and I fashioned five in less than an hour of working time. I could have whipped out more if I bought more washers. I recommend this as an adult project because of the adhesive.

Materials and Tools:

• Assorted stainless steel flat washers. I used a variety of these sizes:
  3/8″, 1/4″ & #10.
• Adhesive or epoxy to bond metal to metal (get advice from your hardware store’s rep. on what’s best)
• Acetone nail polish remover
• Cotton swabs
• Cotton balls
• Thin silver-toned wire to hang the ornaments (I used 28-gauge galvanized
  steel wire.)
• Wire cutter

Instructions:
1. Work in a very well-ventilated area, outdoors if possible.

2. Arrange your washers on your covered working surface, in a pattern to your liking. I went with a two patterns in a Deco look. When joined, the washers will be layered over the bottom part of the previous washer, cascading down.

3. Using the cotton ball and a little polish remover, clean the washers to make them free of grease or dirt. Let dry for a couple minutes

4. It’s too awkward to glue all the washers together at once. It’s best to bond pairs of washers to start. Follow your adhesive’s instructions. For mine, applied a scant-pea-sized spot of adhesive with a cotton swab, then held the washers together with my finger on top for about a minute. Then I went off to do housework and let them dry for 15-20 minutes.

Here are the bonded pairs of washers.

5. Join the pairs together, bonding as you did in step 4.

6. Bond the final washer(s) to your ornament.

7. Let your adhesive cure for the recommended time on your package directions.

8. Add a wire tie. For this I cut a 10″ piece of wire and looped it through the top washer, then tightened.

Thanks for popping in on Day #2 of 30 Days of DIY Designer Ornaments! Chime in with your feedback and please share your photos of your completed ornaments & tree with us!

Tomorrow, join us for Day #3 as we soften things up…