Rawr, I'm a....thing with teeth!

     On an impromptu trip to the craft store the other day, I picked up a few bits and bobs that spoke to me, saying, among other things, "I'm 50% off! You can't afford NOT to buy me!" One of those things was this little guy, a plain ivory-colored tooth with a bronzey cap.

     "Hmmm," I said to myself when I saw it, though not aloud, as there were people nearby and I didn't want them to think I was either a) talking to myself like a weirdo or b) inviting conversation (I took the "no talking to strangers" rule very much to heart). It was alright as it was, but I knew I could make it better, prettier, at least 10% more menacing and 25% less obviously plastic! 

     So when I got it home, the first thing I did was take some fine grit sandpaper and try to rough up the surface a bit. Not satisfied with that, I moved up to a rougher sandpaper, which started to get me toward the texture I was looking for. I wanted it to have as many scratches and grooves as possible, so that when I added paint later it wouldn't just sit right on top and look overly smooth and fake. For the next step of this "buy a thing and then practically destroy it before you ever wear it" marathon, I used a Dremel with a grinding wheel attachment to take a few small nicks out of the unsuspecting faux tooth. 

     With all the re-texturing out of the way, I jumped right into paint. I used a combination of some metallic copper/bronze that I had leftover from my desk makeover and a plain black acrylic, dabbing it on with a small brush.

      After each layer of color I gently rolled the wee little sabre tooth in a paper towel to pick up most of the color. I also made sure to concentrate some black in the nicks so they stood out more. Here's how it was looking about halfway through. 

     When I'd finally built the color up to where I wanted it, I strung it onto a chain that I picked up at the same time as the charm itself, and ended up with.......this!

 

Gratuitous detail shot!

 

 

     I plan to hit it with some clear lacquer to keep any of the paint from wearing or scratching off before I actually wear it in order to protect my investment (about an hour and $4.00 for the tooth and the chain, since I had all the other supplies on hand).

     So that's how I turned an obviously plastic trinket into something more my style: a little dark, a little shiny, possibly recently excavated. Just how I like it!