OPA!

After

I prepared a lovely meal for my husband and myself;

After

Our little menace of a puppy jumped up and swiped a crab cake off my plate;

And after

We enjoyed dessert in our home in the desert, I cleaned up the mess.

I was in the middle of doing the dishes, when I dropped a drinking glass on the stack of plates below.  AHH! I was so mad at myself.  I have such fumble fingers; I’m always dropping things and falling down.  It’s no surprise that I was never a star-athlete.

But back to the story.

The kitchen was clean and I was left with a couple of broken plates.  I really liked these plates.  And they didn’t shatter either, just one chunk broke off.  This made the thought of throwing them away even harder.  So then I started thinking… I could just glue them back together! Nah.  I didn’t want to eat off gluey plates.  THEN I thought, since they broke so nicely, I’ll just take a hammer to the rest of plate and make some wall art!  I thought to make it look like two place settings.

So that’s just what I did.

I glued the plate pieces in back into the original shape of the plate, but not too close, so I could achieve a “mosaic” look.  But I’d need something to glue the pieces to.  I had these beautiful planks of driftwood.  I planned out the rest and made a list of the materials I’d need.  All that was left was: gorilla glue, nails, a hammer, three scrap pieces of wood(to attach the driftwood together), and some silverware.

I found the silverware the following weekend at local antique store’s parking lot sale.  Now, I was all set.

ONE.

I had to saw the scrap pieces of wood to fit the size of the driftwood.  After I figured out how I wanted the wood to face, I flipped the two pieces over and nailed on, the scrap wood.  Two vertical and one diagonally across the center for  additional support.

TWO.

I took the pieces from each plate and arranged them back together.  That one, it uh… it took me a while.  Once that was done, I positioned the dishes on the driftwood and got a-gluing.

*WHEN USING GORILLA GLUE, WEAR GLOVES!  JUST MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE BOTTLE, THEY MEAN IT.

THREE.

I waited for the glue to dry and attached the silverware with strong double-sided tape.

FOUR.

Finally, I attached two eye-hole screws and picture-hanging wire to the back of the wood.

And here we are.

It goes beautifully in the dining room or in the kitchen.  I love the how the three basic materials create a raw aged look.  All in, it only cost me about $15.  I’m sure glad I didn’t throw my dishes away.