Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Grandmother's china

Yesterday, I did a couple of activities, in celebration of Earth Day.  One of them was upcycling some of  my grandmother's china.




When I transported my grandmother's china to my home, a few of the teacups chipped, cracked and broke.  I'm lucky that my grandmother had purchased 30 cups and saucers to go with her service for 20.  Even though I still have a complete set, I couldn't bear to toss the damaged cups.  I searched for upcycling ideas and saw an article on making teacups into candles.  Here's the link http://www.marthastewart.com/273016/teacup-lights  I did a couple of steps differently, so I would only use what I already had.

I used votive candles in the middles of the poured candle wax. Using new wicks and only poured wax would have created prettier and seamless candles.   When the votives have been melted, I plan to replace the centers with other votives or tealights (again, using what I already have).


To melt the wax, using a double-boiler or two pans would be the easiest tool.  I couldn't find the one I use for crafts, so I tried couple of alternative techniques.





I first tried using beakers and boiling water.  It worked but it went REALLY slowly.





I then put my craft bowl in a pot with boiling water.  This worked much better and quicker.  



I used the beakers to scoop the hot wax and pour around the votives.






Finished products




Did Earth Day inspire any of your projects?  Happy crafting!