nostalgiecat: 2013-11-03

Saturday, 9 November 2013

Concrete and gold........Succulent planter and tea light votive...DIY

When I made my concrete lampshade the other week, I found I had mixed up too much concrete...so I quickly grabbed a plastic laundry tabs container, and some empty play-dough cups....poured the rest of my concrete mix in, and this is the result...

...pretty beautiful for a spur of the moment make, hey??

I was bigging up concrete in my last post....but I really must say: A bag of concrete will cost you between £4-10, and there are endless beautiful makes you can use it for...

Save your old plastic containers, and when you've got 15 minutes spare...mix up some concrete and start making some industrial inspired home accessories...

It really is that easy!!

I filled the laundry tab box with the concrete mix , placed two play dough cups into the concrete...filled them with gravel to weigh them down, so they wouldn't float out of position.

And left to dry and cure overnight...

Much like I did when making my concrete and cement planters this summer...

PS! It is helpful to remove the plastic cups before the concrete has fully set, but if you forget, just use a hair drier to heat up the plastic, making it pliable and easier to remove...

I ended up making 2 of these...

To make them match the concrete lampshade I made, I decorated with a strip of gold leaf..

The first one got a golden strip near the top.....

(See my previous post here for easy gold leafing instructions)

...And the second one got a golden strip in the middle...

Then I sprayed the inside of it with gold spray paint, before palm sanding the top to neaten and even out the concrete...

And, voila!! I'd created one concrete and gold tea light votive, and one succulent planter:

And they sit so lovely, side by side, on my little hallway shelf...

Easy..

Go on...have a go!

Concrete really is worth its weight in gold!!

xxx

June

Tuesday, 5 November 2013

concrete lamp shade....

DIY...

In-between all my Halloween preparations over the last few weeks, I finally got around to doing this project: Making this concrete lampshade! Ever since I came across this tutorial from Ben Uyeda at Brit+co, I have wanted to try this...I even had a practice round in playing with concrete and cement when I made my concrete and cement planters earlier this summer...

Having finally done it, I now wonder why it took me so long...as this really isn't as tricky as it may sound...

I have always had a love for concrete: The way it looks: All those different shades of grey...(maybe even more than 50...he he), the rustic-ness of the finish, with bubbles and cracks...and I love the way that if feels: rough and cold to touch.

Where I grew up in Norway, we have a little bridge, paved in concrete, crossing the fjord to another island....and as a child I used to love running barefoot over the bridge on a hot summers day, just to feel the warmth of the concrete under my feet...and then there is the soft scent created by the first raindrops falling onto the hot concrete...indescribable and intoxicating!!

I love concrete!

So today I want to show you how I did it...

You will need:

1large plastic soda bottle

1small plastic soda bottle

concrete mix

water

bowl

drill with 8ml & 2ml drill bit

swag light kit

8ml threaded tube and nuts (I got mine from here)

empty soup tin (or similar)

wooden spoon (or similar)

scissors

Stanley knife

screws

The first thing you'll need to do is prepare the "mould" for making the shape of the lamp shade:

This is where the two soda bottles come in...

Drill a 8ml hole in the bottle tops.(this is easier if they are still screwed on to the bottles).

Then cut the bottom of the larger soda bottle...

Fix the threaded tube into the bottle tops with the nuts... start with the larger one, attach the bottle then, reaching in to the bottle, attach the other bottle top and screw the small bottle in......you'll want there to be about an 1,5" distance in-between the two bottles...

Use the soup tin to hold the bottles upright in.

At the edge of the large bottle drill 3 small holes, to thread some screws into to stabilize the structure and ensure there is an even gap between the two bottles.

Now you are ready for the concrete:

The Brit+co tutorial said to use "quickcrete", which unfortunately is not available here in the UK. So first I tried using cement, but found that this was not a strong enough mix....so in the end I used multipurpose concrete mix from Wickes, which worked just fine, but must be left for at least 24 hours to cure...

Whatever concrete mix you can find, just follow the instructions on the pack with regards to mixing...

Spoon the mix into the gap between the two bottles...shake and tap the bottles as you go to ensure the mixture goes all the way down to the bottom...

Leave to cure!

Taking the concrete out of the bottle mould...

First: remove the screws.

Cut away the large plastic bottle..

Unscrew the bottle top, and remove.

Squeeze the small bottle until it comes way from the walls inside of the concrete, then twist to unscrew from the bottle top inside...

There you have it: your concrete shade...

Decorating...

You can of course leave your shade bare, but

I thought I'd add a bit of gold leaf to mine, as I love the contrast between the opulent gold and the rustic concrete...

I am no expert on gold-leafing, but I simply painted a thick layer of craft PVA glue onto the area I wanted to gold leaf....left it for 5-10 minutes until just slightly tacky, then carefully placed sheets of gold leaf on top of the glue...using a soft brush to very gently push the gold leaf onto the glued areas...Then use the separation sheets from your gold leaf book, lay them on top of the gold leaf then use your fingers to rub over to fix the gold leaf into the glue...

Note: If you have any gaps in your gilded areas, overlap with more gold leaf...leave any excess hanging off alone at this point...

Set aside to "cure" overnight..

The next day, use a soft brush to brush away any excess...

Finishing touch...

I sprayed the inside of the lamp shade with a metallic gold spray paint...

(here in the UK the Rust-oleum gold is the best of the lot), then used my palm sander with 40grit sand paper to smooth and even out the edge of my concrete shade...

Next up is the wiring of your concrete lamp:

You'll need something to suspend your lamp from...I used this shelf bracket from Ikea, and drilled some holes to thread the wire trough...

Use a swag light cord kit without a switch...I found one from cordsncables...

Take the plug off your cord, then simply thread through the concrete shade and the shelf bracket, before re-attaching the plug... I learned how to re-wire a plug here.

....and that's it....a designer look concrete lampshade for just over £20...