Plant holder from an old paint tin
‘Paintings’ never really floated my boat (once on a school trip to the National Gallery I spent the whole afternoon watching Psycho III at the cinema). ‘Paint tins’ however – now, they were a real passion. I used them for a number of projects and found them to be a very versatile resource. This was my first bash at upcycling an old paint tin into something beautiful (and useful) – a mangled plant holder.
Upcycling is all the rage, so why not give it a go? This is a nice easy one to get you started, you just need pliers and sandpaper.
1) Firstly, find an old paint tin, you’ll definitely have one lurking in the shed somewhere. Make sure it’s metal – some of the recent paint products now come in plastic containers.
2) Empty the contents and then start stripping! Use sandpaper to slowly remove the surface of the tin until a nice shiny metallic surface is revealed. It’s much easier if you start with a coarse sandpaper, however, if you want a buffed finish use some finer sandpapers until you get the desired effect.
3) Now for some ripping. Grab some pliers and then start man-handling the tin. Twist and pull the rim until it breaks and then continue to enlarge the ‘rip’ by gripping small sections of the tin and then twisting the pliers somewhat like a sharp attacking it’s prey. I created jagged rips from the top to the bottom of the tin – but do your own thing.
4) Finally, if you want, you can paint your work-of-art with a clear varnish to help preserve its luster. However, it’s also really cool watching the tin change colour over time as it begins to oxidise. The plant pot holder above began to rust as the water used to water the plant slowly started to eat away at the base of the tin – I really liked this effect.
If you interested in upcycling why not check out the rather excellent
How do I recycle this? website. They have hundreds of great ideas for recycling the things that would normally end up in the bin – here’s one of my favourites (especially relevant as I’m writing this shortly after England got knocked out of the World Cup!).
I love this website, such a refreshing change! I like the fact that you are also promoting recycling too, will be attempting a few of your ideas