Repurpose Old Dishes To Make Beautiful New Floral Garden Art

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If you enjoy making garden sculptures, old dishes are some of the best art supplies you can hope to find. They're fairly sturdy, designed to get wet, and easy to source. You can thrift vintage dishes for your garden decor projects, but check your kitchen shelves first. The more of these items you can keep out of landfills, the better. If you have glass or ceramic plates, bowls, or teacups to spare, use them to create simple yet impressive flower sculptures. Unlike living flowers, these creations don't need sunlight or water to beautify your yard.

Your first step is gathering large plates and smaller dishes you can stack on top of them. The plates will mimic petals, and the other dishes will look like middle parts of a flower. Experiment with different dish arrangements to see what's the most aesthetically pleasing. Try placing a teacup on a saucer and then put this duo on top of a larger plate. Or set a small, shallow bowl on a plate, and then insert an even smaller sauce dish in the bowl.

Once you've created some stacks you love, find a strong glue that can handle outdoor conditions. For example, E6000 transparent craft adhesive is one option to consider. In addition to tolerating temperature changes, it's waterproof and good at bonding to glass. You'll also need sturdy rods or stakes for the flowers' stems. Many crafters use metal tubes such as those in the K&S 4-pack of 36-inch aluminum tubes. If possible, pick up PVC drop elbows that are the same diameter as the tubes. These make the stems easy to attach to the backs of your plates.

To turn your supplies into a flower sculpture, glue together the dishes in the formation you've designed. If you're using a drop elbow, attach it to the large dish at the bottom of the stack. It should be centered on the back of the dish. Don't skimp on the glue, and give it a full day to dry before proceeding to the next step, which is inserting a tube into the elbow. The tube goes in the elbow's bottom hole. If you're not using an elbow, you could glue an upside-down bottle to the back of the plate to hold the tube in place. Just make sure its opening is the right size for the tube. Or you can glue the tube to the back of the plate and reinforce it with a heavy-duty tape that's suitable for outdoor use. 3M Scotch Super 88 vinyl electrical tape is a solid choice for this task.

If you don't have quite the right dishes to make the flowers you desire, incorporate glass and ceramic items that don't qualify as dinnerware. You can repurpose household staples such as bud vases, salt shakers, candleholders, and ashtrays as long as they can withstand rain, wind, and sunlight. You could also swap metal tubes for other long, skinny objects when crafting the flowers' stems. Old curtain rods and rebar are two possibilities. Wood stakes will work too, though you may need to replace them down the line since they're prone to rot. Seal the wood with Thompson's WaterSeal or a similar product to extend its life. Also bring your flower sculptures indoors during harsh winter weather, which will help them last longer.