Miniature Brass Kettle Makeover

tiny brass kettle and cast iron minature kettle with wire handle

Hello my mini loving friends,
Today I'm going to show you how I turned a mini brass kettle into a cast iron kettle. I will be gifting it to  a certain Worm who needs a kettle  for tea.

It's a Labyrinth kind of Worm,
If you haven't yet seen my Worm House work in progress,
see part 1 here
see part 2 here

The Brass Kettle is not my kind of mini,
I found this tiny kettle over 5 years ago or so in a thrift store. If I remember correctly it was inside a bag of  various mini items.

These brass miniatures are not very appealing to me. I don't like the color and most always I will find some part of these mini brass items to be a bit weird, as is the spout on this kettle. Look how skinny that is! How in the world could that be fixed? I didn't know back then but I said to myself,
"One day I will fix you tiny kettle. I don't know how but one day you will be wonderful!"
There's always something good about something,
I can tell you the one thing I absolutely love about this brass miniature is it's a heavy little thing! It weighs just as much as a miniature cast iron kettle should. So with that good thing in mind I went to work...

tutorial miniature brass kettle into cast iron kettle

How I did it,
I really wanted to fix that skinny spout and the skinny handle. I wanted to bulk both those parts up and give the overall surface some texture, just like the texture you would find on life sized cast iron kettles.

I decided to use my favorite building materials, masking tape and paper towels. This worked perfectly!

Step one:

I tore a piece of  masking tape into narrow strips then wrapped it around and around the spout and handle until I had the thickness I wanted.
Then I covered the rest of the kettle, and inside the pot, with tiny pieces of the tape and smoothed out any areas of  the tape that needed to be smoothed out using the handle of a skinny paint brush.

After I took the photo below I did add more tape on the inside of the pot.




Step two:
I separated the 2 layers of  paper towel then tore up the one layer into tiny pieces no bigger than the size of a dime. 

a) I brushed glue over top the tape then placed the pieces of  paper towel over the glue.

b) I brushed glue over the paper towel, I also dipped my finger in the glue then rubbed over the surface to smooth out any bumps.

I set it in front of a fan and let it dry. I did the very bottom of the kettle after the rest was dry, that way I could set it down without it getting stuck to my table.



Step three: Paint and seal,
I painted the kettle black with craft acrylic paint. After the paint was dry I sealed it with a matte sealer. I don't think the sealer is necessary but it gives it a nice finish.

Step four: Add in the water!
I brushed glue on the inside edge of the kettle then put in a tiny piece of plastic wrap that a knife was sealed inside of from a fast food place. I used the handle of a skinny paint brush to tap the edge of the plastic into place inside the kettle.

miniature how to make water effect with plastic wrap

This crumpled piece kind of looks like boiling water, I thought so anyway! I also dropped in some clear nail polish on top of the plastic to make sure everything stays in place and to also make it look wet just like water should be.

miniature cast iron tea kettle with fake water

Step five: Add a wire handle,

I don't know the exact gauge of this wire, I found it in my stash. I do know it's jewelry making wire . It doesn't matter as long as it's thin enough to wrap easily and thick enough to hold the shape once you wrap it. 

I placed a thick needle over top the handle then wrapped the wire around them both. That gave me some space between the wire and the handle. I did have to shape the wire a bit after wrapping, for this I used a pointy tool and pulled the wire into the shape I wanted and then pinched the ends with pliers when I was all done.

miniature cast iiron tea kettle with wire handle

Now this is my kind of mini,
I absolutely love how this cast iron kettle turned out and  I hope this post gave you some ideas. Maybe you got an old brass miniature stored away waiting to get a makeover? I'd love to see it, post pictures on my facebook page Where The Gnomes Live or tag me on instagram

Tip Jar ~ Thank you!
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