China Tea Flowers

I stopped in at a garage sale and was admiring their yard with all the neat decor. Garden Whimsy is the popular term I hear.  This ladies China Tea Flowers jumped out at me and tried to follow me home!  Well, you know what I mean.  I couldn't get them out of my mind!  And my thoughts were traveling full speed down the highway of "I can make them myself"   and if you know me, you know I never just make one of anything.  Or two.  Or three.  You get the picture?  I believe in bulk!  So, I wandered local flea markets to find vintage china dishes and votive cups for the center. 

Baubles....you know those shiny things you glue here and there to look pretty.  I personally like the ones that shine and sparkle best but to each his own.  I bought the baubles by the bag at my local Walmart.  Some I found in the craft section in with the pretty buttons.  Use your imagination.  You know that thing I don't have.   So I have to use google and do a lot of copying ideas of others.

I used smaller vintage plates too and some of the votive cups were too large so baubles....

 I tried several things for the backs for the pipe to slide into to hold them secure and finally found some three sided bottles at my local Hobby Lobby store for $1.99 each.  That gave a flat side to use to glue. 

Vintage spoons work good also but you need to flatten them out so the glue will have more space to grasp the back of the plate.  And I found the tip of the spoon which goes down into the pipe sometimes is bigger than the hole of the pipe....

Speaking of glue, I used 100 percent silicone.  I bought the large tube but if you were only going to make a few then the smaller tube is easier to work with.  And the larger tube wants to dry out and that's a pain if you need to come back the next day to finish the job.  But if you use the larger tube you need the little doohickey that squeezes the silicone out with.   I have no idea the real name for that thingy...   Others drill holes but I don't have the equipment for that and I have had no problems so far with the silicone not holding even in our 100 degree summer temperatures.

Now lets talk the pipe.  I am told it is called metal conduit.  It's not a  real heavy metal and I used the 1/2 size.  I bought it at my local Sutherland's and it is really cheap but comes in about 12 foot sections.  The nice guy at the counter told me they would cut it for me and he proceeded to pull this little hand saw thing out from behind the corner.  Of course,  he never said a word when I told him I needed four 12 foot sections cut into 3 pieces each.   And then bless his heart when I told him it was to make china flowers to stake in the flower beds he just looked at me.   And still didn't say a word.  How many men do you know that could cut those pieces by hand and do it cheerfully?  I don't know many myself...He is a good man.  But not sure I could bring myself to go back and get more.  Just sayin...

  By the way,  some sites use rebar.   So whatever floats your boat works.  Now for paint.  Stems should be green.  So I headed to my local Walmart and bought some spray paint.

Think I had to pay something like $5.99 for the paint and it took me about 3 cans so if you can find cheap paint in flower stem green  buy it up!

Now I wouldn't recommend following my example by laying the pipe in the driveway and spray painting them green for obvious reasons.  But I was in a hurry.  It does help to do them in bulk.  You have to spray one side and let them dry.  Helps when it is 100 degrees outside! And then roll them over and spray paint the other side.  By the way it has been several weeks and my drive still has a splash of green. Probably will be there for quite some time.  

I altered the size of my pipes so when I put the flowers on them they weren't all the same height.  I pounded them into the ground about a foot.  Don't they look cute in the center of your flowers?

This plate is made out of metal.  I found pictures where people had spray painted old metal pie pans too.  So not everything has to be from china.

This is one of my favorite pictures.  Right now my Sedum is covered in blooms and the bees and butterflies are swarming all over them.   How pretty are my china flowers among the blooms?

And one other thing.  You can also sit these pretty flowers on a picture pedestal instead of taking them outside.  This one has a vintage dish in the center that I don't want to take a chance on getting broken so I leave it in the house.  Or set it on a shelf.

And one final thought.   My grand-daughter Maddy loves pretty dresses and all things girly so it is no surprise that she also loves pretty china dishes.   So get your little ones involved in making these pretty flowers too!  Teach them to carry on the tradition of treasuring old dishes and things of beauty.
Enjoy Garden Whimsy!   Isn't life fun?