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Bronze baby shoes are a popular keepsake to commemorate a baby’s growth, and can be professionally tanned or done at home with a kit. Other bronze keepsakes, such as pacifiers and rattles, can also be made.
Childhood lasts such a short time, and many parents are surprised at how quickly it passes. The growth rate in infants and babies is astounding, and these needy little creatures quickly become independent busy souls who roam and delight their families. To commemorate the various steps in a baby’s life, many people keep baby books, photo albums, and may keep some precious things as visible reminders of the baby that once was. Among these baby keepsakes are bronze baby shoes.
Bronze baby shoes became popular in the early 20th century and have since gone out of style. Tanning is the act of applying a metal coating to objects to make them permanent, and there are many companies that offer this application so parents can keep baby shoes forever and/or use them as decoration. Usually, both shoes are tanned together and the shoe selection can be the first shoes worn by the baby or the first shoes the baby walked in.
Having bronze baby shoes created by someone else is not very expensive. However, many parents have resorted to tanning their own shoes, which can save quite a bit of money. There are actually bronze kits available at craft stores, although parents should note that these may be slightly different than professionally bronzed shoes. Those created by professionals tend to use an electroplating method, while home shoe tanning means applying one or more coatings of a bronze mixture to the shoes. Both homemade and professional methods of making bronze baby shoes can produce pleasing results that last for years.
For those who plan to tan baby shoes at home, it is recommended that people start filling the shoes with plaster of paris to create very solid baby shoes. It’s also important to make sure the shoes are thoroughly cleaned before applying the bronze coating, as dirty shoes can create an uneven finish. Laces or buckles need to be neatly arranged because once the coating is applied, it should dry and not be touched.
Although bronze baby shoes may be the most recognizable baby keepsakes, there are certainly other things in bronze that can celebrate a baby’s “firsts.” Some people create pacifiers and rattles out of brass. For the baby’s safety, these probably shouldn’t be displayed while the child is young enough to be interested in them. Tanning a first pacifier, for example, and showing it when a child is giving up his pacifier, may not be wise.
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