How To DIY Silver Spoon Ring

Making Jewelry from Silverware

This is nothing new. Making jewelry from silverware is an age old practice. Folklore says it dates back to the 17th Century when servants would steal silverware from their master’s homes and craft rings for their beloved.

Spoon rings always give me a feeling of nostalgia. I remember my mom having one in her jewelry box when I was a child. As a teen I always wanted to wear it, but my mom has the most delicate slender fingers. My fingers were always too big to wear hers! For whatever reason I have never had one of my own…until now!

Where to Get Silver Spoons for Jewelry?

I recently saw someone wearing one, and it got me thinking about making one. Where was I going to get a pretty silver spoon? Then suddenly I remembered that I have a sterling silver set of baby silverware! Remember when it was a thing to have a cup spoon and fork for your baby? Well, my mom had a set for me! I have had it all these years. She always made a point to do special things like that. How about bronze baby shoes, anyone have those?

Unfortunately, the spoon had an encounter with a garbage disposal at some point. I was hopeful that I could buff the gouges out with something.

Rather than keeping this set sitting in a storage drawer, I decided that using it to make a few rings would be a better idea. That way I can enjoy these every day instead of never really seeing them!

If you don’t have some discarded silverware lying around, check your local thrift stores, garage sales or estate sales.

Show Us Your Heart Challenge

You all know I like to participate in creative challenges. This month some blogger friends coordinated a Show Us Your Heart Challenge. For February the challenge is to create a step-by-step DIY tutorial that showcases something near and dear to your heart. I thought that this project would certainly qualify.

I have had this silverware set since I was a baby and I certainly cherish it. It always makes me think of how much my mom loves me! She was a very young mother, yet she and my dad worked hard to provide for us. Even making sure I had my own little set of silverware!

This year I have also participated in a handmade home challenge, you can see January’s Crochet Dishcloth here and this month’s DIY cleaner here.

Tools Needed to Make a DIY Silver Spoon Ring

Here are the tools that you can use, I ordered these, but they did not get here in time for me to use them before I needed to publish this post. While these tools would be helpful, the section below (How to Make a Spoon Ring without Jewelry Tools) shares how you can make one without any of the special jewelry tools.

• An Angle Grinder or Hacksaw
• A Mandrel – I bought this whole set of ring sizing tools because I think I will use it in the future as well. Plus it was pretty affordable. (Although it hasn’t arrived yet!)
• A Mallet
• A piece of leather
• A string and ruler to measure
• A file
• Channel Locks

How to Make a Spoon Ring without Jewelry Tools

We made these DIY silver spoon rings without any special jewelry tools. We used a mallet, a piece of leather, and a socket. Here is how we made the first one.

First, we found a ring that fit the finger that I wanted wear my ring on. If you don’t have a ring, you can measure your finger with a string and then measure the string to see how long of a spoon you will need.

Next, decide if you want the spoon to wrap around or if you want the end to tuck under. This spoon in the picture was so small that my options were limited, this just wrapped around far enough to touch the other side.

Mark the length on the spoon. Using an angle grinder or a hack saw, cut along the line that you marked.

Next, using a file, rub away any rough edges.

Using a piece of leather to protect the spoon, apply a lot of pressure and start wrapping the spoon around the socket. Use a mallet to pound and shape the spoon around the socket. We used channel locks to hold the socket steady.

We tucked the end of the spoon behind the rest of the ring. This was the style I liked and really all the baby fork and spoon would allow. If you have a full-size spoon or fork, you could wrap it in a different style.

Once the spoon is in the shape of a ring, you can go on to the next step of making it clean and shiny.

How to Make the Silver Shiny

The fork and spoons I had were very dirty and tarnished. The end was also very scratched on one from the aforementioned garbage disposal incident. I used the sanding tool on my little Worx Maker X and it took the deep gouges out of it.

To clean and polish the silver, we used bar keeper’s friend and water. Then I polished with toothpaste and a microfiber cloth.

Make any Last Size Adjustments to The Spoon Ring

If you had a mandrel for this project, you may be able to better get the size exactly right the first time. On one of my rings, we needed to make a bit of adjustment. We simply wrapped the leather around it and squeezed it with channel locks.

Enjoy Your DIY Silver Spoon Ring

That’s it! You can also make these from sterling silver, although I haven’t tried that yet! Have fun making your own ring!