A couple of weeks ago, we did a blog on my friend Ginny’s garden swirl that she created out of cement rubble. This weekend, she repurposed some broken crockery into awesome wall art.
In a home full of people things tend to get broken—plates, cups and bowls especially. Because she’s an arty soul, she hoards stuff like that so it can be reused.
First she drew a picture on the wall with chalk. Chalk is great because you can rub it out and start again if you don’t like it.
Then she hauled out her stash of broken stuff.
Wearing gloves, she laid the big shards out carefully, figuring which pieces would work best. Crockery is awkward, because it has ridges underneath which can make some pieces difficult to stick on the wall.
She has tile cutters, but also uses easy-to-find tools. She puts the broken plate into a sturdy see-through plastic bag and taps it hard with a nice smooth rock. She taps and chips until she has the size she wants. (Yes, sometimes the shape of the flower changes because she taps too hard.)
She used two old broken floor tiles for the vase. Those she simply put in a bag and smacked them with the handle of a spade.
A word of caution people – these shards are sharp and you should work with care.
Ginny didn’t. She didn’t have plasters either, so she used toilet paper and masking tape. That works well enough too.
The wall was green. Reusing an old plastic margarine tub, she put in several spoons of white tile grout and then mixed two teaspoons of Powafix green cement oxide into the grout. Slowly, she added some Tile Magic tile bond (adhesive and grout additive – also makes it waterproof) and stirred it up well until it was a gloopy porridge texture. If you put too much liquid in, just add a bit more grout until you get the right consistency. Don’t make too much grout at a time because it dries out relatively quickly.
An old ice-cream stick works well for putting the grout onto the plate before you stick it onto the wall. Ginny had enormous fun sticking the broken shards onto the wall to make her picture.
See for yourself—a bare patch of wall turned into a work of art.
Monday the 22nd of April was Earth Day—up-cycling is fun people and every bit helps.
Sibo
