"Key to My Heart" Hanging Key Hook

This is a beautiful and useful wall ornament, which both looks great on your wall and can be employed to hang your easily-lost household objects! Please note- this is hot! Do not make on a plastic surface. Do not touch the wire at any time after it has come into contact with the iron for a good five minutes afterwords! Protective gloves are recommended. Also, do not keep your iron on unless you are using it, or it will rust. Have Fun!

Supplies

1) 1 lb thick Silver Solder plumbing Wire (I use Oatey Solder, Size: 1 lb - .117" diameter, Type: Silver lead free plumbing wire solder)

2)Silver Solder wire (HGMZZQ Lead Free Solder Wire with Rosin Core for Electrical Soldering Sn99 Ag0.3 Cu0.7 100g 0.031 inch(0.8mm-0.22lbs))

3) Soldering Iron

4) (Optional but recommended) Soldering Iron Spare tips

5) (Optional but recommended) Soldering Iron Tip Cleaner (I use Hakko 599B-02 Wire-type soldering iron tip cleaner)

6)Strong Scissors

7)Pliers

8)26 Gauge Jewelry Wire of various colors (Can be replaced with thread or Wire of another gauge, as long as it's thin. I used 8 different colors)

9)Alcohol markers or alchohol ink- colors optional

10) Fake Leather cord/ String

11)Pictures of male and female sillhouttes-can print out or draw

Step 1: Shape Your Heart

Take about 41 inches of thick Solder and shape the heart. Fold the Wire in half, and try to make a point. Then unfold it , making sure there's still a pointy bit at the end. Curve the sides around to form the heart, with the two ends meeting in the middle.

Step 2: Connecting the Heart

Turn on the Soldering Iron to about 450 Degrees Fahrenheit. When it's heated up, use the pliers to hold the heart still. Then, take the iron and gently melt some thin wire onto the tip. Then, gently touch the tip to the middle of the heart so the two ends melt together. Then, gently pat the rest of the heart with the iron, to give make it stiff and to give it an uneven surface for later. You may wish to cut and melt more thick solder wire onto the original heart to make it thicker, and therefore, stronger. If you go to far and accidentally go through the heart, cutting it into two, just take more wire and melt it onto the hole to reconnect it. Periodically brush off the tip with tip cleaner to make sure the tip doesn't rust. ALWAYS USE THE PLIERS TO HOLD THE WIRE!

Step 3: Putting in the Hook Line

Take a strip of thick wire approximately seven inches long. As you did with the heart, melt it along the sides of the heart, about 5 inches to the bottom. Do the same with a 9-inch piece a little upwards, about 2 inches. Make sure to hold the wire in place with your pliers.

Step 4: Adding the Hooks

Using your pliers, shape three hooks, each from a four-inch piece of thick wire. Then, as done before, turn on your iron and melt the hooks onto the hook lines. The hooks should be of equal distance from each other. Use your pliers to hold the hook as you want it to be attached to the line when soldering. Whenever the solder won't melt, clean the tip and add more skinny wire to it, then touch the melted solder to the solder you want to melt. Make sure the hooks are securely in place.

Step 5: Making the Silhouettes

You can either print out a picture of the male and female faces or draw them. If you print them, then make sure they will fit right on the top of the heart, as seen in the picture. If you draw them, as I did, then make an outline of the part of the heart you want to place the face on, then draw around it. After you have done so, outline your picture with the tick solder. Use the pliers, and you can make each individual face curve (ex, nose, two lips), and then melt them together. Then, put the picture under the heart where you want it, and melt the face into the heart, as shown in the picture.

Step 6: Putting in the Bottom Rainbow Design

Take your colorful wire. I used eight colors, with 2 1.5 yard pieces of each color. Start with red. Tie it to the far- left of the bottom hook line, then bring it about two inches down the heart (under the bottom line). Bring the wire back up, a small bit to the right. Twist it around the line. Bring the wire back down, a little above the last place. Do this a few more times until the wire has reached the first hook. Tie it tightly, and cut any excess line. Do the same on the Far right side, just reversed, going left instead of right. Take your orange wire, and tie it about .5 inch further left than you started with the red. Bring it down about .5 inch past where you brought down the left. Do pretty much the same thing you did with the red wire, except bringing the orange to an end once you've hit about .5 inch past where the red ended. Again, repeat on the left side. Do the same with the rest of your colors. (Bring it past the previous .5 inch if you're using 8 colors, as I did. The colors I used were, in order, red, orange, yellow, light green, dark green, light blue, dark blue. If you're using a different amount of colors, then recalculate the size of the shift to ensure each color has roughly the same length on the line.) Your final color should end at the middle hook. If you've done the same on both sides, then the color will be the same on either side of the middle hook. If a wire looped onto the heart feels loose, tighten with your pliers or loop again.

Step 7: Coloring the Heart

Use your alcohol markers or ink to color the heart however you want.

Step 8: Putting in the Top Rainbow

Here, I used 9 colors-red, orange, yellow, light green, dark green, light blue, dark blue, purple, pink. I had one 14-inch piece of each color. Tie the red above the left-most hook, loop over the place where the heart-arcs meet, and tie back down above the right-most hook. tighten with pliers. Cut off excess ends. Then, tie orange wire slightly more to the right of the original red, and do the same as done with the red. Do the same with all the other colors, ending with the pink gong up in the middle and coming down in the same place.

Step 9: Tying the String

Cut a 30-inch piece of string or cord. I personally like the cord, because it's prettier. Double knot about three inches above the arcs- meeting place of the heart. You can use hot glue to strengthen the not, although that isn't a substitute for a good knot. do the same on the opposite arc. Cut off excess ends. Then, you can hang your key hook on a nail or something else. Enjoy!