More Refurbished Plate 411

I've received a few emails asking for more information on the plates I posted about last Friday — the plates we made at the Method Party. And happily, I've rounded up a few great photos so you can get a better idea of how it works. By the way, the photo at the top is from Danny Seo's home. He made a whole series of plates and displayed them in his workshop — aren't they fabulous? And don't you want to move right in to his workshop?

Here's how you can make a wall of plates for yourself:


Come up with a silhouette. You can draw it from scratch or trace an existing one. Or maybe just do a bunch of circles or stars. Whatever you envision, it needs to be outlined on a sheet of computer sticker paper.


Cut out the silhouette.


Pull off the adhesive backing and place the sticker on your plate. We used old plates that had been picked up at Salvation Army. A great way to reuse!


Choose a color (I still can't remember the name of the paint. Anyone else?), and cover the entire plate surface with paint. You may need a few coats to achieve the color and coverage you're looking for.


When the paint is dry, use a pair of scissors to carefully tug/scrape the sticker away from the surrounding paint toward the center of the sticker. You will want to work carefully or the paint edges can come up. Don't panic if they do — you can touch them up with a small paint brush.


When the sticker is removed, bake the plate at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. (No word yet on how durable this ultimately makes the plate.)

And that's it. Now. Why not host a plate party and make your own collection? Like the idea, but not up for making your own? Check out the work of Sarah Chiat. Refurbished plates with all sorts of good-looking, sometimes edgy silhouettes.

One last note about the party. We were lucky enough to be joined by Amanda from Goody Blog. She is darling and friendly and I loved the post she wrote up about the event. Many of these great photos were taken by her — thanks Amanda!