Electric cutting shears (pictured) helped. The yellow ones are the old fashioned manual tin snips. I used those, too. After cutting the pinwheel out I whipped out the Dremel tool (looks like an archaic dental drill).
I used a grinding attachment to make patterns on the sheetmetal.
And I used a wrench to make it wavy. I wasn't sure how to tack the bent ends onto the pinwheel. ( I absolutely had to fasten them down somehow, they were very sharp, and the metal was too thin to bend down permanently without creasing the pinwheel.) On the cheap plastic ones, the tacking down is usually accomplished by a bead or button. My clever husband had a great idea: a riveting gun. I expected something that looked like a gun or at least a tool with a cord. Not so. The thing looked very unglamorous, a bit like a three-hole punch. It did the trick, as you can see below.
Next post about this project will be how I stick the leaves onto the rebar stems. Any ideas?
Definitely a "la de da" coffe cup. I have a large imcomplete set that was my grandmothers. Just sitting in a box in the basement as I'm not using it. It's all Haviland and some variations on the pattern pictured here. Just beautiful. It used to be the all the same pattern. My grandmother leant the set to her friend probably in the 1930's or so for a luncheon. The maid dropped the box and broke a lot of it. The pattern, back then, couldn't be matched. So other pieces equally as pretty were purchased to make amends. That was way before the internet and being able to find whatever you want. It made things more precious, I think. This sure brought back warm memories. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteWow, a whole box! Sounds like you could throw a lovely tea party with that stash. Thanks for visiting.
ReplyDeleteOops don't have the Dremel rotary drill but have the words to appreciate you, I have all other diy tools to follow your project, nice effort.
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