Chopstick Sunburst Mirror Tutorial

EVERYONE has a sunburst mirror in her living room, right? I keep seeing all of these snazzy tutorials for huge, amazing mirrors made from wood shims and other moderately scary items. Of course I think - "UM, HELLO? I can TOTALLY do that. And there is a whole garage full of tools and stuff at my disposal. I'm MAKING one!!" But, when I asked my boyfriend where we kept the "saw thinger," he immediately put the kibosh on my plans to take up woodworking since I am notorious for injuring myself from ridiculous accidents. (No joke - I'm currently recovering from a broken leg/ankle and foot that I sustained while walking. WALKING!)

So, I skipped the saw thingers and fell back on my trusty glue gun. Of course, I'm not sure that I can glue wood shims, so I needed to think of something similar to the shape of a shim, made of wood, small and cheap. Then I had a brainstorm.

Don't laugh.

I used chopsticks.

You know the chopsticks that are stuck together and you have to break them apart before you can use them to nom your sushi and subsequently get splinters?

Yeah, I used them. And bamboo skewers.

And came up with this rad mirror that I'm going to hang in my living room as soon as the paint is completely dry. (We redid the living room this weekend - which is another nightmare for another time.)

$3.69 Sunburst Mirror (or "Honey, Do You Think The Dog Is Acting Strangely?")


Ingredients:
Chopsticks (FREE from my local sushi place since they love me there... wish I could get free sushi too. I still don't understand how raw fish can be so expensive. I can get a can of tuna for 50 cents... and they cook that!)
Bamboo Skewers (99 cents from grocery store)
Round mirror ($1 from The Dollar Tree)
Wooden Circle Thing ($1.69 - AC Moore, without a coupon!)

Additional Ingredients:
(Note: I had this stuff on hand, as I am a packrat. This project would cost you a little more if you had to buy this stuff.)
Hot glue and glue gun
Gorilla Glue (not pictured)
Marker
Cardboard
Spray paint (not pictured)

Steps:

Step 1. I traced the mirror onto the cardboard so I had something to glue the sticks to.

Step 2. I cut the circle out.

Step 3. I placed the chopsticks in a + pattern and glued them down. I didn't separate them since I liked the wider tops and narrower bottoms.

Step 4. Then I glued some more.

Step 5. More gluing.

Step 6. Guess what?? More gluing!! Because the spaces for the skewers get pushed further out as I glued more in, it created a natural "sunburst" shape. And I didn't even have to measure anything!

Step 7. Added the skewers. I put them in pointy side in and they fit perfectly in the spaces between the chopsticks. 

Then it looks like this!

I didn't get a photo of this next step but I decided to use Gorilla Glue to affix the wooden disc to the sunburst. Then I let it sit overnight. Then it was time to spray paint.

THIS is where my stoned dog comes in.

I was SO EXCITED to get this done and it was raining outside on Friday morning.

Did I read the can of spray paint where it says to use it in a well ventilated area? Yes.

Did I listen? No.

I'm a rebel. And, I knew I could survive for a few minutes in a stinky house without losing too many brain cells.

I grabbed a plastic tarp and put it on my living room floor.

And sprayed the crap out of my mirror.

Like, a lot.

Then I turned on the ceiling fans and left for work.... and forgot about the dog.

When I got home, my house smelled like a Krylon factory. Apparently, since I didn't open the windows, all turning the fans on did was spread the smell around my house.

I went into the bedroom where the dog was (because that's where the AC is) and found her laying in her bed with a glassy look in her eyes. She jumped right up when I got home and we went outside for some fresh air and she looked much better after a few minutes. I, of course, felt horrible for days and kept making her go through her tricks (sit, down, high five, etc...) to make sure I hadn't destroyed all of her brain cells.

ANYWAY, after I rescued the dog from spray paint hell, I affixed the mirror to the wooden shell with some hot glue and the end result is this lovely specimen!!

With flash

Without flash

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