Garden Junk

We have a lovely yard - with lots of trees - that provide lots of shade and keep the house quite cool during the hot summer months. The only drawback to all that shade is that it's really hard to find flowers that will bloom and provide color. A few years ago I discovered a great place on the web called the Garden Junk Forum where people share pictures and instructions for making all kinds of yard art out of castaway treasures. I started collecting cobolt blue bottles and displaying them on bamboo stakes planted in the groundcover we have in the backyard. I grouped them together and thought they kinda look like a cluster of flowers - and they look especially nice early in the morning when a tiny bit of sunshine peeks through the tree branches overhead.

After that, I saw some fun totems - also made from glass dishes - and started scouting for pieces at the thrift stores when I visited.

My most recent addition is glass flowers made by glueing together plates & bowls and adding glass marbles from the dollar store.

I scored at the thrift store one day and found a big shallow blue bowl that I turned into a birdbath.

I chose to make all of mine using clear glass and certain colors, but they can actually be made using anything your heart desires - tea pots - stoneware - ceramics etc.....

I used 3E clear silicone adhesive for windows and doors. (although it didn't turn out as clear as I would have liked) and I attached a flattened spoon to the back so I could mount it on a piece of conduit pipe from the hardware store that was cut to the desired height.

Fun project!