Upcycling vintage teacups: Making teacup candles

This project is something I've been planning to make for AGES, but I only got around to it last week. There is SO much you can make with vintage china - have a look at this list for example. This is a quick and fun way to upcycle old teacups you may have lying around!
 
First, some back story: When Keith and I first moved in together almost a decade ago, all our glassware and china was of the cheapest, most boring IKEA variety. Completely usable, but uninteresting. Then in 2010 two of our friends got married, and for their reception they went out and bought a ton of vintage china plates, glasses and teacups from various charity shops. They mixed them up and made adorable mismatched china place settings, and after the wedding (as, unsurprisingly, they didn't have much everyday use for 80-100 dinner plates and teacups) Keith and I were invited to take some of the china home with us. I was completely in love with the idea and replaced most of our boring china with this vintage variety. This worked really well over the next several years. But there are some less than practical things about unmatched vintage china - for example, most of it was neither microwave or dishwasher safe. So once we both left school and started working and our budget wasn't as tight, we started looking around for a third option. Two years ago, we started collecting a set of tableware which I really love: Pergola by Swedish porcelain makers Rörstrand.

(Image from Rorstrand.se)

By now we have switched out almost all of our old china, and most of it has gone back to the charity shops from whence it came. But I still love many of those old cups and plates, and I've kept some of them with the intent of re-purposing them into something different. I also love "green" and earth friendly crafting - making something new out of something that would instead just become trash. This is the first project I have made so far, and it was both simple and fun.

Vintage teacup candles 

To make your own teacup candles, you can either use the stubs of old, nearly burnt-out candles, or buy shredded candle wax at the craft store. You simply melt the wax in a double boiler (put a metal or thick plastic bowl over a regular saucepan filled with barely simmering water), place a wick into the teacup and pour the wax into the cup.

I started out by using candlewick yarn, waxed yarn which you cut and tie to a pencil or skewer (as when you're making regular tall candles) and rest over the mouth of the cup. But I also had some shorter, waxed wicks which I believe are supposed to be used for making gel candles, and I actually found these easier to use. They are sturdier than the candlewick yarn, so you just pop one into the cup and hold it with your fingers as you pour the wax. In this picture, you can see the little metal plate at the bottom holding the wick in place.

I added some pink wax coloring to the wax as it melted, the color turned out a bit brighter than I was expecting but I still like them. You also have to leave the cups in place for an hour or so to let the wax set and harden - otherwise you can get creases in the surface of the wax.


All done! Right now I'm trying to decide whether to glue the cups to their saucers or not - I'm not sure whether I like the candles better with or without saucers. What do you think?


I'm planning to give these candles away (they make great hostess gifts, for example) over the coming year. And I have another vintage china project in the works, too: Making a couple of vintage china cake stands (like this one) is on my crafty to do-list for this year. I'm happy that those lovely plates and cups will get some more use, instead of languishing in my cabinets!

My 2015 Crafty To Do-List

I told you last week I was working on a crafty to do-list for 2015. I started the year by doing a quick inventory of my ongoing projects, and soon realized that before I start too many new projects, I really need to focus on finishing old works in progress. I have a ton! So instead of listing the 200+ new projects I want to try out, I focused on the projects that I want to finish. Without further ado, I present my 2015 crafty to do-list!

KARIN'S 20 CRAFTS TO DO IN 2015 

1. Finish 1st sashiko pillow 
2. Finish 2nd sashiko pillow
3. Cut out and prep all hexies for my hexagon alphabet quilt 
4. Finish secret EPP project
5. Finish a PocketPhoto cozy for Ella
6. Make 2 china cake stands
7. Make 4 vintage tea cup candles
8. Finish sewing basket make-over
9. Finish photo patchwork cushion cover 
10. Sew wool embroidery pin cushion
11. Sew a hanging sleeve and mount mom’s wall quilt
12. Frame (and hopefully, sell) all machine embroidery pieces
13. Practice face and figure drawing
14. Make watercolor resist paintings
15. Cut and mat old linocut postcards
16. Finish little house lavender satchets
17. Start on vintage embroidery patchwork quilt
18. Sew doll quilt for mom’s garden play house
19. Finish yo-yo Christmas garland
20. Make 3 potholders from old quilt test blocks

What do you think? I will post updates to my list as I (hopefully) start to check things off. Here's to a crafty new year!

"Attention: Craft" Exhibit

I love exploring all the crafty things that Stockholm has to offer! My mom and her husband came to visit recently, and we took the opportunity to go and see the "Attention:Craft" exhibit at Liljevalchs art gallery. It was a pretty small exhibit, but there were several fantastic pieces which I thought I would share with you.

I think this one is my favorite - it's a waterfall (hard to tell in the photo but it's massive, several meters high) made entirely of old recycled denim! Isn't it amazing? The artist's name is Hanne Friis, she makes really thought-provoking textile art.

My mom's husband is into woodworking, so of course we spent a while looking at this fantastic sculpture. It's entirely made of wood, no metal nails or screws. I could barely stop looking at it, it's so fascinating!

This fabric piece is meant to resemble an autopsy - it was quite disturbing! 

Lots and lots of beautiful metal bowls - I was so tempted to try and steal them all home with me! I especially love the turquoise designs in the forefront, they would look so perfect on our living room table... Oh well, maybe I'll be a millionaire one day and able to buy all art that catches my eye.

We spent maybe an hour going through the exhibits, and combined that with a lunch at the excellent museum restaurant and (of course) a look through the gift shop. If you are in Stockholm and have an hour or so to spare, I would definitely recomment a trip to Liljevalchs. The "Attention:Craft" is on for another couple of weeks, so there's still time!

Pretty paper

I just joined a really exciting swap over at sweet jessie's blog, called the Collate: project. I'll be getting an awesome notebook with pretty papers from the whole world! Yay! This is the batch of papers I sent to Jessie for the swap:

I haven't done much crafting this week because I'm busy preparing for a major exam next week. I did take the time to stamp up some bear postcards though! What do you think?

I'm still alive

We're having another heat wave over here, and I've been stuck inside studying... Phew! But now I'm finally done with my exam, so I've had a little bit of time to craft. I really wanted to do some sewing, but inspiration still hasn't hit. So instead, I decided to make another batch of homemade paper. Last week when I visited my mom, I mentioned that I remembered making paper with her when I was little. Luckily she still had a screen left, so we whipped up a first batch. We used recycled newspaper, and we didn't use a blender (mom wasn't to keen on wrecking her expensive blender with paper goo...) so the pulp had a lot of chunks in it. Here is what the finished sheets looked like:


This second time I made more of a serious attempt, and I followed this tutorial over at flickr - I can totally recommend it, it's super detailed! I put more white paper in the pulp this time, and I used my old cheapo blender. Worked like a charm! Here's a picture of the second attempt:


I'm not sure whether you can see it in the photos, but this batch came out a lot smoother and lighter than the first - which is great, since I'm hoping to stamp on it with some of the awesome stamps I received in the stamp swap at Craftster.

And this evening, since it's too hot to do anything else, I went through some of the paper that was going to the recycling, and shredded it in preparation for another batch of paper sometime later this week! :)


Have fun in the heat!

Craft green this weekend!

We're going to visit Keith's parents this weekend, so I won't be blogging for a couple of days... I thought I'd leave you with a couple of ideas for awesome, environmentally friendly craft projects.

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The story: A couple of days ago, my dad and I spent over an hour on the phone discussing creativity, awareness and the politics behind the whole DIY-movement. My dad is a librarian in the small town where I grew up, and he's very involved in the community. He told me that they are having trouble finding fun activities and projects to get young people involved - so naturally I suggested crafting! I love crafts with a political edge like subversive cross stitch or knit graffiti, as well as environmentally aware "reduce, reuse, recycle" projects. Dad asked me to e-mail him some links to "green" craft ideas that I thought would work well at youth centers and workshops. I had lots of fun looking them up for him! I'm sure you've heard of most of them before, but here are a couple of my favorites:

Great tutorial for making handmade paper: I'm trying this as soon as I get back home, I love the look of handmade paper!
Making a cake stand out of thrifted plates and china: An awesome gift idea is using old plates, serving dishes and candle sticks to make cute cake stands. This example uses clear glass plates, but I love how it looks with different colored plates as well.
Make your own envelopes: I'm always looking for ways to use all the old magazines and junk mail I get... This is a template for turning them into pretty envelopes.
Another cute sweater project: I've been brain storming about what to do with the wool sweaters I got last week, and this is one of the projects on my to do-list.
The record bowl: This is a classic, it's so simple and fun!

Have a great crafty weekend!