Scrap Metal Ring

I keep collecting abandoned junk in the desert - broken tv glass, shotgun shells, rusted nails - but this time came across a great stretch of rusted metal strap. one person's junk, right? I started off with the idea of a bracelet but instead crafted a ring as my trial piece. not a bad start!

the tools used were tin snips, a file, pliers, a sandpaper sponge, tacky glue, and mod podge's dimensional magic.

i cut a couple inches off using tin snips.

throw on those safety glasses and snip the corners at an even angle.

I filed down the edges at each corner, working the file at a diagonal. I don't have a fancy file. it's actually a farriers file, given to me when I worked as a carpenter. any simple metal file will do well.

since it takes some of that beautiful rust color off with the filing, I continued along the edges for a silvery trim.

I used pliers and bent the ring into shape. you could probably use a socket to curl the metal around something if you're having trouble shaping it. I prefer the uneven, bent-outta-shape look, myself.

using the sides of the coarse and fine grit sanding sponge, I softened the catches out of the filed edges.

I had this fortune cookie paper lying around that said, "You love life very much." what did I think of it? rip it up! heh :) it was for a good cause.

I used tacky glue to affix the pieces.

then I coated both sides of the ring in a thin coat of mod podge's dimensional magic to protect the rust and the paper.

drying was most time consuming. this stuff takes about three hours. I dropped it on the end of my well-loved paintbrush, weighted it, and let it be.

turned out to be a pretty cool little band with some good color to it. thanks, desert wasteland!