Wedding horseshoe charm

[Jnhuk]

Has anyone made these out of their own horses old horseshoes? Any ideas of how to get them looking their best

OH was suggesting somehow getting them chrome plated rather than just painting them

 

[Nudibranch]

I used an old shoe from our first pony for my sister's wedding. I didn't do anything to the shoe itself as the whole point was it was rather old and I wanted it in its original state. I mounted it on a small slate and painted their names and wedding date on, but I have never had one plated or anything.

 

[Honey08]

We used our little welshy's shoes as balloon weights. We sanded them down and then used silver wheel paint (from a car suppliers shop, ie Halfords) on them.

 

[Cowpony]

A friend gave me one for my wedding, many, many years ago. She had somehow got hold of a racing plate, which hadn't been used, and decorated it with small silk flowers and ribbons in my wedding colours. I still have it and it's one of my favourite things from the day, especially as the friend who gave it to me is no longer with us.

 

[minkymoo]

I cleaned up & spray painted 180 for my wedding, some as favours and some to decorate the church.

They looked beautiful and nearly every guest took theirs home. 5 years later everyone still has them! Me & DH had shire horse shoes and all the children had pony shoes. Also, only a worn horse shoe is lucky, so butter up your farrier!

An angle grinder does a great job of getting rid of rust and any other crap. As a side note, make sure you put an undercoat on to prevent them rusting.

Plating is very expensive but perfect as a B&G gift.

 

[Cowpony]

Thanks. So mine isn't lucky. But my husband and I have just celebrated our 28th anniversary so it can't have done us much harm!

 

[mums the groom]

I just Scrubbed mine with a wire brush left to dry and sprayed silver and decorated in the same colour scheme as her wedding with silk flowers, ribbons and butterflies for my best friends wedding, but little tip if you put a paper peg on two of the nail holes you can remove them easily after straying so you have holes for threading the hanging ribbon through

PS have saved daughters 1st ponies 1st shoes for her wedding

 

[pansymouse]

I've made several; I sand and polish them with a Dremil mini drill grinding kit then decorate them with ribbon and silk flowers. The last two went to Saudi brides - my husband was working out there and was invited to the weddings. We thought a traditionally British gift would be a nice gesture (I included a little card explaining the tradition).

 

[SKW]

We painted horseshoes for everyone's name places (thank-you wonderful farrier!), and used my own horses shoes for mine and my husbands places. We scrubbed them all as clean as possible with wire wool and a toothbrush. We then used a couple of coats of a spray-on primer that was designed to go on rust (look at the rustoleum range), followed by a silver spray paint, and then a clear top coat (without the top coat we found that the pain got chipped very easily), before painting the actual names on and then adding hanging ribbon. I suspect that they may start to rust eventually but they have been hanging in our house for the past year and there's no sign of rust. Plating might might give a better long-term finish if you're only doing one...

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

I made one for a friend who rides my boy regularly and loves him to bits.

I used "Hammerite" paint on the shoe (you can get various colours) to start off with.

Then I decided on a colour scheme: easy as my horse is a piebald so I'd decided my colours would be (obviously!) black and white!

I initially looked for materials, bits of feather, scraps of ribbon etc in charity shops - you don't need to spend a fortune.

For fastening things on - always tricky - you can use stuff like Superglue, or microporous tape (from any chemist). Or something like electrical insulating tape just to get things stuck on - you can always paint over or put some decorative sticky tape or gift wrapping/decorative sticky tape over the top. Also you may find that your local florist may have stuff that you can use like artificial flowers etc., and fixtures and fastenings! I also went to the local stationers and found things like gift ribbon, that sort of thing. Also a haberdashery shop will give you a treasure trove of stuff you can use.

I decided to use a diamente effect for the nail-holes; had seen one like this online - you can use stuff like little diamente crysals from a haberdashery shop and they will look lovely if you use superglue to stick them on with, or you do what I did and roll up some silver cooking foil into small little balls and use that! It did the job equally well and looked great! Its not about what you spend!

I wish I could post my finished article here (have never worked out how to do it on here). My friend was really pleased with the horseshoe when I gave it to her, and I'd be confident now to do the same sort of thing again.

I wouldn't call myself a creative person at all either, so don't be discouraged. Have a go first with one that you can just use as a practice article, and experiment.