This may be the funniest thing that I've done in a while...
Yesterday, when I was at Terri and Derek's house, I spied a crock pot sitting on the corner of their kitchen counter. What was most interesting was that it was a round Crock Pot with an R2-D2 head.
the original crock pot with an R2-D2 head
I should mention here that Terri and Derek (and their kids!) are Star Wars fanatics. Terri and I both loved Star Wars growing up, but Terri has taken it several additional levels. For example, Terri and Derek had a Star Wars wedding!!! (no, they didn't dress in costume, but Terri did march down the aisle to the Star Wars march from the end of Episode IV.) They also had the action figures of C3-PO and R2-D2 standing on the top of their wedding cake as their cake topper. I could go on and on. It was fantastic, and really suited them well.
Anyhow, I complimented Terri on her cleverness of putting a plastic R2-D2 bowl on top of the crock pot. Brilliant. She told me that she had always wanted to paint the crock pot as R2-D2, but had no idea how to do it.
Well, I had no idea how to do it either, but I volunteered right then and there on the spot. I figured I could go to the Michael's craft store, try to find some sort of heat-resistant paint, and I could just paint it on for her. I mean, it was certainly worth a shot, right?
So, I went to Michael's and asked a friendly employee if they had any heat-resistant paint that I could use to paint an R2-D2 crock pot. He thought it was a great idea, but didn't really have any suggestions. Originally, I thought we could use ceramics paint (because ceramics are fired in a kiln at very high temps after painted) but they didn't have any. Really?
Eventually, I found some tubes of Enamel paint which said that they could be used on porcelain then baked in a 325 degree oven. That sounded pretty heat-resistant to me. I figured it was our only option, and worth a shot.
I checked online for a reference photo to see which paint colors I would need. Luckily R2-D2 is pretty basic. I only needed to buy white, blue and silver.
R2-D2 Reference photo
the bottles of glossy enamel paint that I bought in White, Blue, Silver and Clear
We did a test patch on the back of the crock pot to see if the white paint would cover over the pattern already on the crock pot. We discovered that the paint was quite thin, but that it would work if I used several layers. I also figured out that if we turned the crock pot on while I painted the white that the paint would dry faster and that it would "bake" the color in. We figured that if this worked, then it should be okay to actually use the crock pot for cooking. (meaning, the paint wouldn't peel off, or fade, or whatever.)
We turned the crock pot on, and I applied layer upon layer of white paint. Eventually, the multiple layers became opaque enough that the colors and patterns of the original crock pot were covered.
covered in layers of white
Next, I used my reference (Terri just happens to have dozens of Star Wars books in her house) to draw in the pattern with a pencil.
The Droid Guide Book
pattern drawn in pencil
The next step was to use a silver sharpie pen to outline the pattern. At this point, I figured that there was a solid layer of white Enamel paint protecting the original surface of the crock pot, so I *think* it's okay to use a Sharpie Marker.
Terri documented the step-by-step of the transformation. Here I am drawing with the silver Sharpie marker
The pattern outlined in silver Sharpie Pen.
Next, I started to add the blue. I painted in the blue areas with a paint brush. It took a few layers to get it opaque enough.
more blue!
After painting the blue and silver areas, Terri turned the crock pot back on for a while to let those colors bake in.
This morning, I returned and re-outlined all of the silver lines outside of the painted areas to clean it up a bit.
the final product! The World's First R2-D2 Crock Pot!
One of my favorite parts of the R2-D2 Crock Pot is that the On/Off knob of the crock pot is in the same place as a circular plug on the original R2-D2 design! Nice coincidence!!
This evening, I put on a few layers of a clear glossy paint hoping that it would heighten the glossiness a bit. It was still drying when I left, so I hope it turns out!
I'm really thrilled that our crock pot painting experiment turned out!! We'll find out how it survives it's first usage after Terri uses it to make cider at Thanksgiving!
I'm really glad that we ran with our little experiment. We were both laughing so much when I was painting it. What a great and fun idea!
Enjoy your new and improved crock pot art, Terri!! I had a blast painting it, and I'm so glad we were able to do this fun projet together!! xo
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