How to Make a Garden Art Dish Flower

by Tuula - Color Me Thrifty

The most difficult part of making a plate or dish flower is finding the pieces to put it together. I find all of my pieces at thrift stores, garage sales etc.

how to make a garden art dish flower, crafts, gardening, repurposing upcycling

Once you have some pieces that you'd like to use the actual assembly of your dish flower is pretty easy.

For this dish flower I'm using a vintage 9" silver plate tray bottom from a tiered stand, a large but low glass bowl, a blue decorative bowl, and a flower shaped candle holder.

So first the glass bowl gets glued on.

Always apply the glue to the raised parts of the bottom of each piece or they won't adhere well if at all.

Hopefully you can see in this pic that the glue is applied to the raised outside edge of the bottom.

Once each piece is down just wiggle it in place a bit to make sure there's a good connection between the pieces.

The candle holder also had raised parts on its bottom so that is where the glue was applied.

And again wiggle a bit once put in place.

Here's the glue I use... Marine GOOP adhesive. It's used in boat repair and is UV and water resistant. I've heard that E6000 works well also, but I've never used it for outdoor projects.

Tape all the pieces with painters tape for about 30 minutes so they don't move. Believe me that can happen.

Remove the tape, and let your dish flower cure for about 24 hours in a cool place. This is important, the glue won't cure properly in hot and/or humid conditions.

I find stainless steel tablespoons for 10 cents each at my local thrift store. The spoon should be flattened and bent like above.

Glue the spoon to the back of the flower.

Decide where the top of you dish flower will be at the front and glue the spoon accordingly on the back.

Tape the spoon in place and let it cure for about 24 hours. It needs to be fully cured before you place it into the pipe to display in your garden.

Before you glue the spoon make sure the end is not too wide for whatever pipe you're going to use. I use 1/2" or 3/4" copper pipe, but any pipe you have around will work. Just make sure your spoon handle will fit.

Once your dish flower is cured place the spoon into the pipe, which should be inserted into the ground about 10-12" to give it strength on windy days.

When picking pieces for your dish flowers take into account what it will look like from the sides.

The best thing about a dish flower is there's no watering required.

If you have cold and snowy winters dish flowers should be safely stored out of the elements to keep them looking good.

I added a vintage cufflink as the centre of the flower.

Now that you see how easy it is I hope you'll make one to decorate your own garden.

The possibilities are really endless. To see a few examples of others I've made please pop over to my site using the link.

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Frequently asked questions

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3 of 4 questions

Charmaine on Jul 29, 2017

How did you flatten the spoon ?

2
Hs37090 on Sep 22, 2017

Do you ever paint glass to suit your needs? How do you do it? All I get is brush strokes. It looks horrid. Tyvm. Love your work.

1
Mfitz on Feb 12, 2022

Won't the silver tray or dish tarnish over time? Could one paint it? Or do you have other suggestions?

1

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2 of 105 comments

Lovesunique on Jun 16, 2019

Very pretty. Adding the cuff link was icing. I think this is a way to use up old costume jewelry out in the garden where you can see and enjoy the shine it brings (along with the glass).

2 Reply
Hil58105764 on Feb 23, 2022

Yes

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