Serving Set: Check!

I just finished my serving set, and since it's halftime for the SEC Championship game, I can post about it!

Serving Set, "Before"

Serving Set, "After"

A detail shot. You can see that my lines got a little wiggly on the knife, but it still looks great!

It took me three hours, on the dot, to finish this project.  I did work on it during the first half of the game and was obviously a bit distracted, so I probably could have finished sooner.  Anyway, here's my "how-to:"

1. Purchase your serving set.  Don't buy one of the plastic, "faux crystal" ones, even though their low price might be tempting.  The handles are not smooth, so it will be difficult to glue the rhinestones down and get the look you want.  I bought mine from Crate & Barrel (link goes to serving set).

2. Purchase your rhinestones.  I used 16ss hotfix rhinestones and felt they were perfect- any smaller would be too small and a lot work, and bigger would have fit awkward.  I got 720 crystal clear, and 720 light aquamarine (though I'm almost positive she shipped aquamarine instead, but I kept them because Fi liked the colour so much).  We got them on eBay from this seller.  Shipping was free, so that was an added bonus!

3. Purchase glue if you don't have some.  I highly recommend using E6000.  I barely needed any to complete the project, and it holds steadfast.

4. Purchase tweezers if you don't have them already.  I used a pair with a flat tip from Tweezerman.  I found that they were easier to use than those with an angled top.  I'm sure it's a matter of preference though.

5. Purchase Q-Tips if you don't have some.

6. Once you have all your supplies, put some glue on the top of the handle and use a Q-Tip to spread it over some of the handle.  Don't spread too much- the glue dries super fast.

7. Use your tweezers to pick up a rhinestone and place it where you want it on the handle.

8. Continue to use your tweezers to pick up/place the rhinestones in a straight line around the handle.  I really do recommend working around the handle, instead of straight down.  It ensures your lines stay straight going around, and gives you the opportunity to fill in gaps more readily if you need to.  You can see on my serving knife that I started to get sloppy toward the end, and it's because I didn't take my ow

9. Move onto the next row, and keep going until the handle is covered :)

And that's all there is to it!!