The gilded pear: a DIY craft

This weekend I was inspired to do a little crafting. Or sort-of crafting. I never know what to call projects like this one. Makeovers? All the phrases seem too big and complicated for anything this simple.

Anyway. I found this bunch of hollow pears and baby gourds from Goodwill for only $5.05, so I brought it home and considered what to do. I had a little oil-based gilding paint left over from a previous project (just barely enough) and I decided to use it on the pears. Here's what happened.

1. Pears (and gourds) before:

Tools: Gold leaf paint and wire cutters (to release each pear from the bouquet).

Gilded pears, after:

What do you think? Pretty, right? I know gilded fruit reeks of Christmas, but I think pears are so beautiful in general; I might display these babies all year long. I made eight of them, and I figure they could work well as place setting, in a bowl, etc. Maybe I'll hang them from the ceiling. Who knows?

For now, they're marching along my dining table, looking very fine indeed.

I still have three pears in their original condition, plus the gourds. Plus the metal stems, which seem too handy to toss. I wonder what I'll do with that stuff...