Two years ago, actually it was June 9th 2014 almost to the day, spooky or what? I posted about how ‘we’ ie. the royal we as in Marc and I constructed a garden lantern, from tins, bits of wire and jars.We even grandly christened it our garden chandelier oh la la …
Two years ago, actually it was June 9th 2014 almost to the day, spooky or what? I posted about how ‘we’ ie. the royal we as in Marc and I constructed a garden lantern, from tins, bits of wire and jars.We even grandly christened it our garden ‘chandelier’…
By the way I will leave a link to that post at the end of this one, in case you want to make one too?
Garden Chandelier How it used to look:
Fast forward 2 years and our garden chandelier was looking unloved and a more than a little sorry for itself. Having bravely weathered two winters of heavy rain and frost, it was rusty and broken. I took one look at it and almost threw it away!
But something called to me from those little tins and reminded me of the fun we had on that summers day whilst making it, and how romantic those twinkly little lights were, as it swung above us on those balmy summer evenings.
How it looked two years later:
Oh dear….so I decided ‘we’ had to update, renovate and give it a new lease of life. So we did, less vintage kitsch, more industrial simplicity.
How we updated our handmade garden chandelier
Very easily…
We cleaned out the remaining small painted jars with thinners, taking them back to clear glass. Then rewired the glass jars with copper wire (Marc stripped some from bits of old cable) Lightly rubbed all over the tins with some sanding sponge, it gives the surfaces a ‘key’ for the paint to cling to. Sprayed the tins with two light coats inside and out, It makes it easy if you hang them up to do this. Allow plenty of drying time.
I then found all the original wire hooks from the original project, turned the tins up the other way, and re hung the new jars, but used less of them, to keep it all simple. Finally we added tea lights and hung it up in the willow tree.
The Before and after :
So ladies, if your old cake tins are looking a little old, then string up the old oneslike this in the garden and buy some new ones for the kitchen! What a fab excuse eh?
This is how it looks twinkling under a starry evening sky…
Do you like it?
If you are interested this is the original post, with all the details. Its more like a tutorial so do take a look if you fancy making one too.
Have fun, bestest wishes