How should I decorate drumsticks?

i really have no idea but would painting them with just any paint mess up the sound they create? may want to look into that.

I thought you meant turkey drumsticks. Now I have to rethink the whole thing.

@Samantha_Rae I’m not too concerned about the sound quality. My brother doesn’t have that much experience.

Mmmm. Drumsticks. Choco Tacos are good too.

You probably want to sand off the existing finish or at least rough it up first so that your paint sticks. Spray paint would then probably do the trick for a base coat, especially if you spray on a layer of primer first. Then you could do fun details with acrylic paint or stickers. I would seal whatever you did with some varnish or shellac or something like that to protect your work.

I don’t really know how long any paint job would last though. Drumsticks are pretty rough and tumble!

@elocin It’s alright if the paint wears. I like the looks of scratched up designs.

is anyone else as unappreciative of astrochuck’s presence as me?

I think you should try decoupage! It’s one of my favorites, I’ve done it on a lot of different items and it wears well.
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/decoupage

I’ve used magazines, photos, cards, stamps etc
But my all time favorite project was for my boyfriends birthday I did a plant pot and covered it in different panels from comics that he loves. I even went and bought the old kind that he read as a kid. That was all most two years ago and while I don’t slam the pot against anything it’s held up thru everything else.

Another idea I’d try is actually carving designs in them, but I don’t know anything about that, it just popped into my head and sounds cool.
Good luck and have fun.

@elizabethmae Decoupage won’t wear off?

@gememers Don’t be a dick.

No matter what you paint them in, the paint will come off one day.

I think if you lacquer them up real good they’ll keep for a while. He’ll probably break one before it wears away :) I used to date a drummer, drumsticks were constantly being purchased.

Maybe you could do some decoupage with paint and place the images or whatever you use (text or song lyrics could be cool) towards the middle where it won’t be striking the drum and won’t be held on to. I just think it’d look pretty rad :) I <3 crafts

a handmade touch is always better, he’s going to love whatever you do :)

this girl looks pretty happy
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1112/1025330752_e7a44a7f3b.jpg?v=0
and those look hand made

Stain them to look like an exotic wood.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=62168&cat=1,330,43243

@gememers

No, I don’t mind Astrochuck at all. He’s frequently good for a laugh and anyone who can make a crack which has me snorting milk from my nose from laughing so hard, gets points from me.

Not every cute crack is a slam dunk, but he hits the mark often enough.

You certainly have a right to your opinion, but sometimes “discretion is the better part of valor”. As a friendly little hint here: you may want to consider getting the lay of the land before you start lobbing grenades (snide comments) all over the place. You never know when they’ll blow up in your face.

He’s been here a lot longer than you and if the mods had found him that obnoxious, he would have been long gone.

I was also considering advising a little respect for one’s elders on a site, but that’s a little difficult to do for a six year old with antlers and a red nose :)

But you may wish to keep basic respect in mind. Always a good thing, as Martha would say :)

You may not appreciate him but many people here do quite fondly. I just don’t see a whole lot of people lining up behind you on this. Maybe you could try being a wee bit less of a curmudgeon here. Christmas is coming. Santa is watching. You don’t want a lump of coal in your stocking, now do you?

Well, no matter what, I definitely wouldn’t paint them any higher than the taper – that’s the part that gets chopped up by the cymbals. Also, don’t put too heavy a coat of varnish on the finished product – if they’re too slippery, he’ll end up dropping his sticks, and that’s never fun.

Perhaps you could consider decorating the sticks, then mounting them in a shadow box to use as wall art? One better, you could mount them on a matching-decorated drum head. (that’s the part you hit) You can probably find a used, beat up head really easily by putting a request on Craigslist.

Some ideas for decoration could be the favored colour scheme and/or logo of his favourite band. i.e.- a picture of Eddie, if he’s an Iron Maiden fan, or an orchid if he likes Opeth.

Use red tape to make ‘em look like candy canes!

Either glow-in-the-dark or glow-under-blacklight paint – but as a few other posts have said – sand them down a bit first, and don’t bother painting the tips – especially if they’re plastic.

I once put masking tape around a pair and painted in between the lines to get a tapered spiral thing happening. That was pretty cool.

But I agree with @Seek_Kolinahr, whatever part of the stick ends up striking the rim or cymbals (on both ends) will become “unpainted” in short order.

@Master0fPuppets I did sand them down and I did put glow on the dark paint on them : )

Black with white skulls, of course! :)