Upcycled Bamboo Jewelry Displays -- Part 2 of Crafting with Bamboo

Zazzy Peacock felt and crystal bracelets
on a handmade bamboo bracelet rack

I have been very busy preparing for the upcoming 2013 Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival, which will take place on May 4 and 5 at the Howard County Fairgrounds.  I wanted to have some beautiful and unusual jewelry displays and have made a few out of bamboo -- including bracelet racks, necklace and earring displays (upcycled from bamboo floor mats), and a larger version of the bamboo vase from my last post (Crafting with Backyard Bamboo, Part 1).

I made two bracelet racks -- a single and a triple!  I am really happy with how the bracelet racks turned out, but I must say they were a challenge!  I decided to construct them by inserting vertical piece of bamboo into the horizontal bar, both for looks and strength.  Well, I've gotten the hang of cutting pieces of bamboo on my miter saw, but drilling a one inch diameter hole into the middle of the bamboo was a whole new experience.  Using a crazy-looking drill bit, I split quite a few pieces and never really got a clean circle cut out.  I had to use a file to get the jagged holes big enough to fit the vertical rods.  

Bamboo pieces pre-assembly

Gluing these bamboo pieces together was also difficult.  I needed to use a glue that would hold the pieces in place (perpendicular) quickly and provide a strong lasting bond.  There was a lot of trial and error involved, but eventually I decided the thing to do is use a dab of hot glue to hold the parts in place and then add a lot of wood glue.  (In my experience, hot glue does not hold up on wood over time.)  When the wood glue was dry, I used wood filler to fill in the many unsightly gaps.  Once I applied sealant, both the bamboo and the wood filler took on a nice golden color.

My homemade triple tier bamboo bracelet rack displays
Zazzy Peacock needle felted bracelets available now in
my Etsy shop and soon at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival

For the bases, I used scraps of bamboo flooring left over from our remodel.  I drilled out one-inch holes only part way through the base to hold the vertical rods. I tried to finish the edges with strips from an old bamboo floor mat, but the corners came out so bad that I decided to add pretty french gimp trim.  I also added the trim across the length of the bars because I thought it would help the larger felt pieces to stay up on top of the bars instead of slipping upside down.  I think it worked, and I love that my bracelet displays are unique.

To display necklaces and earrings, I made a few boards out of an old bamboo floor mat.  (This should have been trash, but I tend to hoard stuff that I know deep down was meant to be upcycled.)  The bamboo mat was great to work with because I was able to cut it with a mat knife.  Well, I scored the wood with the knife, and then snapped it apart and sanded the edges.  At least I didn't have to use my power tools for this project!  Then, I sanded the bamboo down and applied a sealant to clean it up and restore the golden color.  

Upcycled bamboo mat displays
Zazzy Peacock felted jewelry

To create hooks to hold the jewelry, I used t-pins from the craft store.  I inserted them in between the strips of bamboo, through the rubber binding on the back.  I bent the pins into position with my jewelry pliers, but I probably should have used something more heavy duty. Those t-pins are SO strong.  For necklaces, I wanted the pins horizontal and fairly tight to the mat.  For the earrings, I opened up the ends slightly (not easy!) and bent them so that they were in a vertical position and about 3/8"  off the mat.  I found this worked well for holding both post earrings and wire hook earrings.  Once I got the pins where I wanted them, I used duct tape to secure the pins to the back, then I covered the whole back with contact paper.  Simple, huh?  I love how they look -- I just hope they hold up!   (In person, the jewelry actually looks great set off against the bamboo, but it's hard to see that in the photo.)

I used my backyard bamboo for two more projects.  First, I took one of the bamboo vases from my oldest son's bar mitzvah and expanded it from just three pieces to twelve.  This made it more interesting and a lot more stable.  I will be using it to hold peacock feathers and a couple of manzanita branches (you know the ones that look like little trees), as well some other dried floral elements.  I hope to dangle some bracelets and/or hair accessories from the branches.

Lastly, I cut a couple of very long, thick stalks of bamboo to use as poles to hold up the banner for my booth.  I added eye hooks to the tops so that I could tie the banner.  I needed to pre-drill little holes to get the eye hooks in (normally, on a softer wood, I can just use an awl).  So far, I attached the bamboo poles to my gridwall using duct tape (boy, that stuff comes in handy!), but I think I will have to come up with a better solution before the show.  For now, I was just so happy to see my six-foot banner actually hanging above my gridwall.  Yay!  My booth is really starting to come together.  Hopefully I will post some photos of the whole set-up in the next couple of weeks, before the festival. If I get too crazy, I'll be sure to post them afterwards.  :-)

Related posts:  Crafting with Backyard Bamboo, Part 1

My handmade bamboo vase displays Zazzy Peacock felted hair accessories hung on manzanita branches

Yay!  My Zazzy Peacock banner is hung on tall bamboo poles attached to a gridwall.

Crafting with Backyard Bamboo, Part 1

I love having bamboo in our backyard.  Sure, it's spreads like crazy if you don't keep it in check, but it makes an amazing evergreen screen.  At over forty feet tall and dense to the ground, there's nothing better for privacy.  And it's icing on the cake that I get to make crafty stuff out of the dead stalks of bamboo wood.  

I know most people think bamboo is a nuisance to control, but I actually think that part is fun too.  In late spring, when the shoots come up, I put on some boots, round up the kids, and we go out back to stomp on them.  I learned the first year we lived here that you have to do this as soon as they start sprouting.  That year, I waited a week, and they were already six to eight feet tall, and way too strong to stomp on.  I had to get out an axe and hack away at them.  That was fun too, just not as easy.  

Ironically, we had a spring snow the other day.  Here is our
bamboo bowing down under the weight of the snow.  

Of course, it's this ultra-fast growth and rapid spread that makes bamboo a "green" renewable resource.  As crafty as I am, I couldn't possibly make enough stuff to wipe out my supply of bamboo.  (I still can't figure out how the Onceler made enough thneads to use up all out the truffula trees.)  When I need some bamboo stalks, I have to squeeze myself into the thicket to find some loose deads ones.  This is not always easy, but when I get in there, I forget I'm in my own yard in Maryland; I feel like I'm an explorer in the jungles of Asia.  

Anyway, the first time I decided to make something out of my plentiful supply of bamboo was for my first son's bar mitzvah.  It was winter, and my son didn't want a theme.  I decided to put together wintery centerpieces of dried floral arrangements.  I was getting ready to buy some glass vases, when we had one of those spring-like winter days that we sometimes get in these parts.  I was outside with the kids when I noticed a bunch of dead bamboo in the thicket.  I started pulling it out and brainstorming things I could do with it.  Each stalk was over forty feet long!  They look a lot longer lying on the ground than they do standing in the yard.  

I cut some bamboo up with a handsaw and quickly realized that bamboo really is as hard as they say.  (I also quickly learned that you do NOT use the pieces with holes -- they have ants in them!  Yuck!!!)  Next thing I knew I was at the Home Depot buying a miter saw.  It turns out the bamboo is hollow except at the nodes.  I designed a vase made of three pieces of bamboo-- staggering heights and cut to be solid at the bottom and open at an angle at the top.  Gluing these together was a pain.  Looking back, I should have screwed them together and/or used a ribbon or cord to hold them together.  

Although we had no theme, my son's Torah portion was about the building of the Ark of the Covenant and the tabernacle, so we took our design cues from there.  I spray painted the bamboo vases gold and filled them with dried floral elements and branches in metallics, crimson and purple.  I made them very tall and skinny (presenting an interesting balance challenge) because we were serving a family-style luncheon and needed room on the tables for food platters.  I also got so excited about cutting up bamboo that I made holders for the table numbers as well as lots of little place card holders.  

All in all, I was pleased with how everything turned out.  The centerpieces looked elegant (without being too feminine), and best of all, I did not hear any grumbling from the Lorax.  Oh, I take it back, the best part is that these centerpieces did not go to waste.  People took them, and they did not die like flower arrangements.  I kept a couple too, and still use them to decorate the sideboard or the dining table.  

Here are some early prototypes on my dining room table.
(FYI, this is terrible lighting -- the walls are not that bright!)

Here are the centerpieces at the party. They were supposed to have pinspots on them.  Oh well.

I used mini versions of the bamboo centerpieces as place card holders.
I printed them on card stock, and then staked them with gold sticks that I used in the centerpieces.

Three years later, these bamboo vases still decorate
the sideboard in my dining room.
(By the way, this photo shows the true color of the walls!)

Next time, in Part 2, I will follow-up with a few bamboo projects I am working on right now for my upcoming craft show -- including a three tiered bracelet rack!