Chez Larsson

Damejeanne ~ Carboy ~ Demijohn

This summer has been weird plant wise. Because of the very harsh winter we lost almost all our ivy and quite a few other plants such as the thyme and some roses. Other plants have thrived, I've never had as huge Lady's Mantles and as many Allium Giganteum ( above).
 

But by this time the allium are kind of sad looking, the leaves all wilted and the stems falling over loosening from the bulbs. So during the weekend as I did a bit of gardening (turning the composts, cutting off bloomed over Lambs Ears, getting stung by a bumble bee etc etc) I didn't just want to part with these as they still look kind of cool.


So enter one of our damejeannes. Or if your British, demijohns. Or American, carboys. Lady Jane, Half John and Mustang Dude?! Who came up with these names?

For some reason we are in the possession of two of these. One contains some nasty brew (I think Martin has forgotten about it. It's sitting under our front steps since I can't remember when...) and the other one has been on a shelf in the basement pantry for a looooooooong time. 
 

About time it saw some action so I took it out of its crate and cleaned it using this method but instead of rice I used sand which worked pretty well. I didn't get it 100% clean on the inside but it's good enough. Cut some of my Allium stems and simply plonked them in my new giant vase. 


  I love how these look like something supernatural, outer worldly, satellite-y. Wonder what will happen if I spray paint some? White.

Those Cans

Remember these ginormous cans which I brought home from the recycling area at work? Well I want more!



Three holes tapped with a hammer and and a fat old screwdriver (use a big nail or an awl if you only have good screwdrives so you don't ruin them) and some coats of spray paint later and I'm a happy camper.


I ended up not painting the silver and gold ones because I ran our of paint but in retrospect I'd have preferred at least the gold one to be white.


So what's in them? After putting some pottery chards at the bottom for drainage I added soil and planted two with basil and two with mint.


And as I said, now we want more! On my to-do list for when I go back to work on the 19th is to see if there are more of the largest cans to be had. Hopefully the restaurant in the building has been using a lot of pickled cucumbers during summer...

Panduro Concrete Challenge 7

So, while I was working on my other house number for the Panduro Concrete Challenge last week I also had this idea, a flat plaque that could be hung I suppose, but I kind of like it like this, embedded in the gravel outside our house.


Again I printed and cut a number out of paper. I do love that fat Arial Black 7 so I used it again but smaller than the last so it would fit inside the tin lid I wanted to use as the mold.


By the way, tin lid = not a good idea. It's so much better to use a cardboard lid and line it with the liquid rubber thing because paper can be peeled off after the concrete has cured. More on that later though.


I traced around my paper template onto a piece of foam core board and proceeded to cut the 7 out with a craft knife.


Here it is. Because the foam core board has paper on top and I was afraid that the foam might stick to the concrete...


...I used regular clear office tape to cover the whole thing. I taped. And taped and taped some more and...
 
...in the end I flipped my 7 over so it was backwards because I was using the bottom of the tin as the front of my plaque. Oh, and I oiled both the number and the tin before adding the concrete mix.

Here it's curing in the garage with the rest of my things. After It had been sitting in the garage for about 24 hours and been sprayed every so often with water it was time to take it out of the mold. Ehem. This is where I got into trouble.


The dang tin lid didn't want to let go of my concrete plaque. At all. I tapped gently. Harder. Violently. But to no avail. I ended up having to take my pliers out and break into the mold which caused some cracking to the finished plaque. It also caused some blood shed as I cut myself on the tin lid.

I did get it out in the end though and after removing my foam core 7...


... all's well that ends well and so, that's my 7th and last submission to the Panduro Concrete Challenge. Fitting it's a 7 then. Lucky no 7? We'll see. Hope my little crafts have inspired you to do something out of concrete. It's been so much fun!

Panduro Concrete Challenge 5

I've definitely been bitten by the concrete bug. Here's Submission #5 to the Panduro Concrete Challenge. This one's purely decorative the way it's used here but it could be used to stake a plant too.


My star-on-a-stick started out as a plastic star shaped container that we've had laying about for years. I have no idea where it came from originallly.


I used pliers to nip off some small bits of the hard plastic in one corner so I could get my stick through.

Then I filled the two sides almost full and quickly turned one on top of the other and then pressing them together.  I forgot to mention that I used plastic ties to secure the bookend and this one too. Not necessary but just to make sure they stayed together properly.

After inserting the stick I used a Skippy jar lid to elevate the end of the stick so it would be straight after the concrete had cured.

And here's my star!

If you are curious as to what my competion has been up to you can find links in the comments to this post at the Panduro blog which is where we're submitting our work. Unfortunately they aren't direct links, you have to copy and paste them into a browser. I haven't posted mine yet, I'll do that after I'm done posting them here and will add them all at once. Some of the bloggers who's submissions I'm most excited about seeing haven't posted their links yet so I think the best is yet to come.

Panduro Concrete Challenge 4

Lucky number 7? Anywhoo, this is submission #4 in the Panduro Concrete Challenge. I've been wanting to craft a house number and today I feel pretty lucky to live at number 7 in Bromma and not 17241 in Yorba Linda...

This is the milk carton project you saw glimpses of in my 365 last week. I needed to make my own mold for this so I figured the coated milk carton would work well.

I looked at different number 7's and after making my choice (Arial Black) printed and cut it out from paper.


Then I proceeded to cut the milk caron into strips. The width was determined by how deep I wanted the number.


I had this perspex sheet and figured it would be a good base for the mold. It was perfect since I could lay the number underneath and still see it.


I then connected all the strips into one long with masking tape. I made sure to keep one side flush with the surface all the time so there wouldn't be any gaps between the perspex and the strips.


Then it was just a matter of taping the strips along the lines of my number 7. I noticed it was easier to do loads of little tape bits instead of fewer longer ones and made sure to not leave any openings where the concrete might seep through.

As you can see I used masking tape to brace the mold and prevent it from collapsing after I got the concret in.


Here's the concrete I used. Also included in the kit all us bloggers got was natural liquid rubber. You can use this to coat molds that are made of paper or other materials that would otherwise soak through when the wet cement is inside.


I used it to seal the bottom of the mold, again to prevent the concrete from seeping through and ruining the shape.


The actual mixing and molding process took place in the garage and outside which is a good idea because the concrete powder is pretty dusty. Here my number 7 is resting in it's mold. As you can see I also added a stick in the base because I knew I wanted to put it in a planter and would need the stability.

In this photo you also see outdoor candle holder from Monday and the bookend from yesterday curing as well as another of my projects which will be revealed later this week.


Ooh, success! The project I was actually most worried about since I made the mold myself actually turned out pretty ok. This was taken as it was still a little damp and the stripes have since disappeared. While the concrete was till slightly damp I sanded the edges with a regular sandpaper btw. Concrete's cool like that!


And here it is. Will it and my other concrete crafts win me the 4000 Kronor / $500 worth of craft supplies that is the grand prize in the Panduro Hobby Concrete Challenge? It's going to be tough though because I know there are some pretty talented crafters in the challenge. We shall soon find out.