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Hands Occupied

Contemporary yarn crafts by Heidi Gustad. Knitting, crochet, latch hook and macrame.

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How-to: Bronze Laurel Headband

July 23, 2012 2 Comments

The Olympics start on Friday, and I’m so excited! My tutorials for the next few weeks will all be Olympics-themed in honor of the occasion. The tutorial today is probably one of my favorites of this year so far. It’s cute, came together really nicely and looks expensive for a craft project. I love it!

Bronze Laurel Headband DIY at Hands Occupied

Supplies

metallic colored jewelry clay (I chose bronze!)
Old baking sheet
X-acto knife
Bronze acrylic paint
Headband
Super glue (~2 tubes)

Directions

Separate your clay into a bunch of evenly-sized pieces. Mine came in balls, which I cut into eight even pieces each. Then mold them into a leaf shape. I sketched a template to help ensure each of my leaves were similar.

Bronze Laurel Headband DIY at Hands Occupied

Bronze Laurel Headband DIY at Hands Occupied

Bronze Laurel Headband DIY at Hands Occupied

Once you’ve crafted about 2 dozen leaves, bake them according to the clay’s package directions. The clay I used needed to be baked for 30 minutes at 266 degrees F.

Bronze Laurel Headband DIY at Hands Occupied

Bronze Laurel Headband DIY at Hands Occupied

When pardo clay is baked, it becomes very hard. Here’s how my leaves looked as they cooled:

Bronze Laurel Headband DIY at Hands Occupied

A couple caveats about working with this clay is that it can crumble. Also, toxic fumes can result during the baking process. Because of this, I made sure to use an old baking sheet I don’t intend to use for baking again.

Next, score your headband with an x-acto knife to give something for the glue you’re about to use to stick to. Begin super gluing your cooled leaves to the headband in a laurel vine-esque pattern. This takes a while and is rather messy. I used my craft-exclusive baking sheet to protect my work table in this step.

Bronze Laurel Headband DIY at Hands Occupied

Bronze Laurel Headband DIY at Hands Occupied

Bronze Laurel Headband DIY at Hands Occupied

Bronze Laurel Headband DIY at Hands Occupied

When my super glue dried, it made my leaves look anything but shinily metallic, which was a huge bummer. Between that and the fact that my headband base was black, I wasn’t satisfied with how it looked. Luckily, there’s acrylic craft paint!

Bronze Laurel Headband DIY at Hands Occupied

Paint over the whole headband with as many coats as it takes to look good. Let it dry completely, and you’ve got yourself a totally cute headband.

Bronze Laurel Headband DIY at Hands Occupied

Bronze Laurel Headband DIY at Hands Occupied

Filed Under: DIY Style, DIY Wedding, How-to, Olympics Tagged With: diy, diy wedding, headband, How-to, olympics, tutorial

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. She specializes in knitting, crochet, latch hook and macramé, and her first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is out now!

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Comments

  1. Hannah

    March 17, 2014 at 6:05 pm

    Where did you find metal clay that you just bake like you would polymer clay? I use ArtClay copper metal clay and you have to use a torch to actually make it into metal, and the bronze metal clay I know of needs to be fired in a kiln. The picture before the headband was painted still looks like clay. I think what you have is a metallic polymer clay if it is the pardo clay that is in the picture, and not actual metal clay made with actual metal particles and a clay binder that burns away. What you did is perfectly fine, and much less expensive than actual metal clay, but there is a difference between metallic clay and metal clay. Metal clay just needs to be burnished to bring out the shine, just in case what you have is actually true metal.

    Reply
    • Heidi

      March 19, 2014 at 9:37 am

      Aha! That makes its color after being baked make sense – thanks so much for the info! I’ll have to try ArtClay next time I want to do a metal (not metallic) clay project. :)

      Reply

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Heidi Gustad from Hands Occupied / Craft Book Author and Knitting, Crochet, Latch Hook and Macrame Designer

Hi! I’m Heidi, an author, yarn craft designer and content creator specializing in knitting, crochet, latch hook & macrame. My work unapologetically features primary colors and vintage-meets-modern style. My first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is now available!

Professionally I’m most known for: advanced intarsia knitting design & modern latch hook design.

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Craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. / #latchhookbook out now!
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knitting, crochet, latch hook & macramé

Heidi Gustad 🧶✂️
Happy Wrestlemania weekend, folks!!! 🎊 It’s c Happy Wrestlemania weekend, folks!!! 🎊 It’s coincidentally International Punch Needle Rug Hooking Day today, so I’d be remiss not to share a first look at this project finished JUST in time to wear while I watch some rasslin’ on a pirate ship in a football stadium in Tampa! 💪🏻 I’m excited to watch tonight’s women’s matches the most. Eee!
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Pictured: A blond woman in a denim dress and glasses wearing a giant belt made with punch needle. The belt is made with wool in primary colors and was inspired by the WWE Universal Championship title belt. 
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This is just a preview - after jab 2.0 tomorrow (feeling grateful 🙏🏼), I’ll be editing together a vlog about the design process for this wooly waist cover. Sometimes it’s hard to know how to make some of your wilder craft ideas come to life. Stuff you’ll never find a pattern for, you know? I’ll finish editing that ASAP, but I might take a few days to edit if I feel like trash from 💉 and only want to watch wrestling and wrestling YouTube for a day or two. 😂
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#ipnrhd #punchneedle #wwe #wrestling #championshipbelt #wool #yarn #handmade #universalchampionship #universalchampion #rugmaking #wrestlingfan #wrestlemania37 #wrestlemania
A look at the halo on the back of my wrestling-ins A look at the halo on the back of my wrestling-inspired punch needle project! It’s interesting to see how fuzzy the handspun beige yarn is compared with the primary color sections of @knit_picks Wool of the Andes Bulky. ❤️💛💙🤎 
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Pictured: The back of an in-progress punch needle project. A wooden punch needle tool sits on the work.
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#punchneedle #woolrug #rugmaking  #kpambassadorsapr21 #sponsored #griefproject #handsoccupied #wrestlingfan #universalchampion #yarn #yarncraft #wool #needlepunch
Happy Easter / One week til Wrestlemania! Finishin Happy Easter / One week til Wrestlemania! Finishing up the punch needling part of this crazy @wwe inspired project by tonight. 💪🏻🧶 Anybody else have crafty plans for this fine spring day? 
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Pictured: A blond woman sits, smiling and holding an in-progress punch needle project inspired by the Universal Championship belt. Houseplants are in the background and there’s lots of sun. 
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#punchneedle #griefproject #handsoccupied #heidigustad #wrestlingcrafts #wwe #universalchampion #universalchampionship #wool #wooloftheandes #primarycolors #oxfordpunchneedle
I'm finally starting to get some of my energy back I'm finally starting to get some of my energy back from the past few weeks, and as I dip my toe back into production mode, the long-promised seamed sweater knitting YouTube series is at the top of my list. I've got FOUR versions of a simple sweater I've been playing with since last JULY to feature as a free pattern for folks who want to knit along during the series. Pictured is the first prototype for the series, knit in 2 colors of @knit_picks Mighty Stitch yarn. I imagine this soon-to-be short sleeved number will come in handy as an emergency Waldo costume or Christmas sweater. 🌲 
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I've got my own list of topics I think folks would like to see in a series like this: things like tips for construction, working with vintage patterns, how to seam as invisibly as possible, and more, but as always, I'd love to hear from you: What scares you about knitting seamed sweaters? What would be helpful to cover, especially since we'll be doing more long form video content. I get so much positive feedback on my series of 20 minute+ intarsia tutorials, so I'm using those as a starting point as I produce this series. Seamed sweaters using vintage or self-improvised patterns are one of my favorite things on the planet, so I'm eager to share some seamed sweater skills with y'all super sweet folks. 😉 
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Pictured: A red and white striped, short sleeved sweater knit in pieces that have yet to be seamed. They are laid out on a yellow and orange colorblock background and one sleeve is yet to be bound off. 
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#handsoccupied #seamedsweater #kpambassadorsmar21 #sponsored #knitpicks #waldo #waldosweater #wip #yarncraft #yarn #knitting #knittersofinstagram #heidigustad #vintageknitting #sweaterknitting
Work continues this evening on my absurd punch nee Work continues this evening on my absurd punch needle pro wrestling inspired championship belt project. I’ve finished most of the front pretty quickly thanks to the @knit_picks Wool of the Andes Bulky yarn I’m using. For now, I’ve got a couple more weeks until Wrestlemania, & I’m on track to finish this in time! 
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The biggest question I have is what to do with the “plates” - the open circles in the picture. Should I try to closely replicate the Universal Championship belt or go rogue and make it wool themed? Please advise in the comments. ☺️🧶🙏🏻🐑 
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Pictured: The front of an in-progress punch needle project. A wooden punch needle tool with navy yarn running through it rests on top of the work. 
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#kpambassadorsmar21 #sponsored #knitpicks #punchneedle #rugmaking #primarycolors #punchneedlerughooking #punchneedlelove #wool #wip #yarncraft #yarn #yarnaddict
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