Thursday, June 13, 2013

Art in the garden - glass flower



I love how glass art looks in the garden.  I've seen these glass flowers at art shows and thought I'd try my hand at making some.  My tiny garden really doesn't have much room for more garden art but I thought I'd squeeze in another piece (or two) of garden art.
 
First I searched for small bowls or plates that could be stacked together to create a pleasing arrangement.  All of these pieces have similar color tones.   Most of these pieces came from my husbands grandparents.  The small glass cup is too small for a wine glass...maybe it was used for Sherry? I think the bowl on the bottom is actually an old glass cigarette dish!

I glued the pieces together using Loctite clear silicone waterproof sealant. This type of sealant comes in a small tube and must be used in a well ventilated area.  Open up those windows!
 
After the pieces were glued together I took an old spoon, flattened it, bent it, and then glued it to the back of the stack of dishes.

 
The flower part is done.  Now to work on the stem and leaves.  Fortunately my hubby doesn't mind shopping for art supplies IF it's at a hardware store.  He picked up a small piece of copper pipe and flexible copper tubing.   I bent the copper tubing into leaf shapes and my husband used a rivet gun to attach them to the copper pipe. We also crimped one end of the pipe to hold the flower.
 

After I put the newly created flower stem and leaves into the ground I just slipped the end of the spoon into the crimped end of the pipe.
 
Voila! My glass flower is now blooming in the garden



This is a great project to reuse old glass dishes that hold a special memory... or maybe didn't sell at that last rummage sale (lol).  I am working on another glass garden art project.  Stay tuned!


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