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| Last Updated on November 2, 2007 |
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| I love chair planters. This chair was given to me by my Mother-In-Law. It's probably 100 years old. Once I cleaned off the dirt, I realized the navy blue paint was in great shape for it's age, so all I did was dry brush some light colored paint over the blue and add a couple coats of polyurethane. I stapled a wire basket to the underside of the chair and added a coconut liner and planted it as usual. I filled it to over flowing with various annuals, and it looked great right up until frost. I added a pot sitter on the top. |
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| Bowling ball art seems to be all the craze on some of the Garden Junk boards and I can see why. They can be quite addicting. I decided to start off simple by spraying a clean bowling ball with a plastic primer. I cleaned the ball with paint thinner. After the primer dried I sprayed on three layers of copper paint, letting each layer dry between coats. Then I completed it with two layers of an acrylic sealer. It held up pretty well this summer. I brought it inside for the winter. The base is just an upside down flower pot until I can find a better base for it next year. I've started a whole new page on recycling bowling balls. Check it out here. |
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| Originally when we started this website, we were focusing on things we made or grew ourselves. But over the years, I have acquired more and more items that I am putting in the garden as is, or with very little modification and they don't seem to have a place on this website, but are things we wanted you all to see. So I decided a page dedicated to Garden Junk was in order, to house all the little miscellaneous items that don't have a dedicated page, but are still special to us. Continue to visit the Main Craft Page for a complete list of categories. |
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| Windows are becoming more and more popular in gardens. I've seen them made into greenhouses, tables, hanging on sheds and turned into planters. I decided to spruce mine up with some stained glass. To do this project all you need is a sharp knife to help remove the glazing around the window (I used a 5in1 painter's tool), some needle nose pliers to remove the glazing points, a glass cutter, stained glass, new glazing and glazing points. To begin, remove as much glazing as you can, then pull out the glazing points with the needle nose pliers. This window had six glazing points per pane. At this point you should be able to remove the glass. If you |
| you can't get the glass out, then you have not removed enough of the glazing or there may be more points in there that you didn't see. They are tiny, so it's easy to miss one if you are not sure what you are looking for. Once the glass is out, finish cleaning up the edge and it should be ready for new glass. I took the old pane and used that as the pattern for the new glass, just make sure you cut out the glass using the inside of the mark, so as not to make your new glass too big. I also used a ruler to help me cut a straight line, as I am new to glass cutting, but that is not necessary. If your glass has a pattern, make sure all your glass is facing the same direction for a more uniform look. I was unable to do that due to size of the glass I had, but I think it would have looked better if they were all going in the same direction. I also didn't want to have to buy anything new, so I went with what I have, and I like it just fine. Once the new glass is in, tap in the new glazing points and apply the new glazing according to the manufacturer's instructions. I don't know if all glazing is the same, but the kind I used was sort of like play dough. I rolled it out in my hand like a snake and then pressed it in place using the 5-in-1 tool to help get the appropriate bevel. Some Hints: Each pane may be a different size, so you may want to use each different pane of glass as a separate pattern to cut the new pieces. Also, if your stained glass is thicker than your original glass, you will need to make adjustments for that as well. My stained glass was thicker, but I was able to cut the new glass a little bit smaller than the original glass to make it fit. Since this is purely decorative, it was fine to do it this way. An easy way to tap in the glazing points is to use a magnetized flat head screwdriver to help hold the glazing point in place and then tap the end of the hammer to push the glazing point into the wood of the window frame. A plain screwdriver works well too, but the magnetized head helps to hold the points even better, especially if you have larger finger tips. |
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| I was absolutely thrilled when we found this headboard at a garage sale for $5. It's quite heavy, so I believe it may be enameled iron. |
| These washtubs will most likely become a water garden next year. It's a little late in the season to mess with it now, but I wanted to show you that anything can be used in the garden. |
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| I've been collecting tea kettles for a couple of months and decided to make a "Tipsy Teapot Totem". Why turn them into a totem, you may ask? I don't know, but I came across the red and blue one at a yard sale a couple months back and thought the colors would look great in the garden, so I did a little research to see if anyone had made any totems using metal or enamel tea kettles and found there were very few online. In fact, I only saw one, and it was made a little differently than this one. So of course, since I like unusual things, I set out to make one. This was basically made the same way as my Tipsy Pots. We pounded in a 1/2" threaded rod about 2' into the ground and then just added the pieces as we went along. The bottom kettle is sitting on an upside down clay pot and each kettle rests on the handle of the kettle below it. The handles are wired to the rod for added stability and a tiny plastic clamp is under each pot, although I don't know just how much it is really supporting the pot. The top of the rod is finished off with a glass insulator. I plan on putting mums in the base and putting pansies in the tea kettles. I will update this page with another picture, when it's all planted. |
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| Old Coal Stove |
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| I'm not sure what this is supposed to be: a planter, stand, piece of art. I guess you could use it for anything. For now it's holding one of my bowling balls. |
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