Easy Décor – Plaster Molds

There are some crafts that require an artistic flair – for color, texture or competency with a technique. There are others that you just simply follow instructions and do, yet are rewarded with a beautiful piece.  Décor from molds fit the latter. When I’ve seen “ugly” pieces – it’s always that they were simply overdone. Less can be so much more with paint. I’m a fan of straight spray paint or spray paint then antique coating or shading – nothing more.

Plaster is normally only used for inside pieces, but I’ve done items, sprayed three coats of acrylic sealer on all sides and left them outside for more than 5 years before I tossed in desire of something new. This was in my old location that didn’t freeze, but did pretty much have rain with constant dampness from December through March. The items were also not directly on the ground.  Right now I have a sealed plaster Greenman, tiles and Greenlady on my porch although we’re into the ‘storms a few times/week’ mode.

For my new home I’d chosen an Egyptian theme for my office in honor of some papyrus and a plaster tile I’d brought back from a trip there.  A current search for plaster molds yields 1,100+ plaster and cement molds on ebay.  The molds I’m showing were from Queen of Crete, but I haven’t seen her offering items for the last year or so.

I mentioned eHow’s instructions here and there are a multitude of videos on how to mix plaster to help you out. Regular Plaster of Paris works fine – some sculptures may go up a notch although I have not found the need. Main tips are to be sure your mold is on a level surface before you begin and tap it once you pour your plaster in. When I have larger items, I cut a piece of plastic screen or some muslin in press it into the back of the piece lightly (don’t want bits to scrape what will be the front of the piece). The ones here are all displayed on plate holders – to hang on a wall, balance a small dowel across the back of your mold after you’ve poured the plaster in and lay a wire hook on that towards the top of the piece (the hook would simply sink without the dowel to keep it in place).

 

Plaster is not indestructible. In the past 10 years I’ve had 2 pieces break when knocked over – so I’m pretty happy with my track record.

I actually think it would be faster to just pour a new one of Hathor (above) then try to glue this one. They were all allowed to thoroughly dry, then painted with a Rustoleum Metallic spray paint. So simple. So fast. Yet everyone who has seen them has always commented and assumed I’d picked them up in Egypt. I get to pick the color and the copper was so perfect for the mood and décor in the office. If you’ve been afraid of plaster – just pick up a small bag at the hardware store, get a mold and give it a go. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

 

Everything old is new again, the glued cake stand

True confessions time.  CompuServe was my first online presence (as Deirdre, a nice Irish name) and AOL my second (4 identities there).  I’m calling attention to this as there’s an apropos phrase “everything old is new again”.  Folks have been doing some things for so long that it’s hard to give credit to whoever may have been the first. 

Case in point is the glued together cupcake/cake stand.  My own introduction to this was through Gardenweb Junk forum.  Gardenweb used to be a great discussion board created and run buy a guy named Spike. But, Spike sold it.  Parts are still very active, some not so much. Many great crafty folks and gardeners have left the site as, unlike our newer social networking sites aka Facebook, many discussions boards (Gardenweb being one) threaten to throw you out (and they seem to be able to bar all id’s associated with your computer) if you link folks outside the site.  So, if some poor soul desperately needs embroidery machine software advice on one of the Home Forums and you know of 2 nifty Yahoo groups where she might get answers and you’re kind enough to post that – ping, out you go. And, poor soul can’t get her expensive machine working. Now that you stand warned, know I may often link over there in acknowledgement of a project’s origins. There were (and may still be) GREAT craft artists on Garden Junk  and one of the later spin-off forums Hypertufa.  There’s also great gardening advice and pictures in many of its forums. But it’s pop ups/ads galore now and a dictatorial style of management.

The gardenwebers were gluing things together to place around their gardens in the 90’s (pennies or marbles on bowling balls, teacups with saucers on copper pipe as bird feeders, stacked wood items, glued china and glass items as totems, and of course glued china and glass became cake stands).

My latest project is late to the game of glued together cake stands. But, seeing differing approaches is why we blog surf, so here goes.

  

  

  

  

  

I like glass – it can match any holiday. I can use paper doilies or make a cloth holiday doily to place under items.  For those of you with 99 cent stores – they have glass (or black plates or white, all nice basics). I chose a sugar bowl plus dinner size glass plate for a grand total of $1.98 plus tax.  I already had the E6000 glue.  Some folks use GE Silicone II, others Gorilla Glue or Super Glue. Just think, I could make 5 of them to place down the center of the table for less than $10.00. I can make it taller or combo short and tall by using glass sundae cups, candle holders or vases. I’ve seen some made with mugs and cups but I’m not a fan of the “it’s obviously a cup glued upside down look”.

One hint on a YouTube video I searched when looking for instructions to link you to (and now can’t find, sigh) is to use a washable marker and mark the center of your plate on its underside, carefully center the base and mark on the plate bottom four dots or points just outside the edge of your base so you’ll center correctly. Be sure to wipe off the center dot before you glue if you’re gluing glass (or it will ALWAYS be there) and when you’re done gluing you can wash off the marks outside the rim of the base you used for centering. It’s very easy to glue them off center a tad which just won’t look as nice.  You also want to be sure the area you’re gluing is spotlessly clean – no fingerprints.  I constructed it upside down, using a toothpick to spread some glue on the plate bottom, placing the upside down sugar bowl on top of that and a book on top of the whole thing to weight it while the glue dryed. The whole thing only took minutes to put together. I did work on newspaper to protect my counters.

As mentioned, I like to link you to instructions for items that have been done for years. No reason for me to take the time to rekey it all over again.  I hop onto Google or YouTube, see what I can find and here you go. So, for a simple how to tutorial go here: Armelle Jewelry’s Tutorial.  For a visual, go to  YouTube and key in “cake stand how to” or “cupcake stand how to”.  If you stumble across the one where she uses a washable marker to mark the center, please send me a link so I can update this post. Don’t forget to handwash these puppies – no telling what the heat and water in a dishwasher might do to the glue.