Tuesday 22 May 2012

Fun with Power Tools

Do you like my arty photo? It's hardly of the Pleasant View Schoolhouse standard, but I am trying. Anyway, you may have seen similar mismatched china cake stands around on vintage markets and fairs, they actually cost quite a bit of money to buy, but the average gal can make them quite easily and cheaply if they have a drill and the right fittings.

I made these with the youngest girl this weekend. I have an awful lot of spare plates knocking around the place - it's a by-product of buying antiques at auction as a job lot, there's always a plate or two you don't know quite what to do with. We chose plates that went well together - they don't have to match, but they do have to have the right kind of ratio (see photo below).
Then, buy yourself some cake stand fittings from ebay. You just have to search it and tons will pop up. You may also need a tile/glass bit for your drill.

You have to find the centre of each plate, stick a little masking tape over the centre mark, drill a hole into the plate (my DH said, "apply a firm pressure, but don't press too hard." However, I have the upper body strength of a newly fledged pigeon so had to press with all my might.) and next, screw your fitting as per the instructions on the kit - or just use your common sense.

Et voila! Cake stand a go go.

You may ask yourself, "Dulce Domum, what on God's green earth are you going to do with four cake stands?" and you'd be right in asking. First, I'm going to try to flog them. However, my ebay shop is more traditional antiques than fun vintage-y things - and I doubt if I'll get any takers. So, if all else fails, I'm going to use them during the Jubilee celebrations (they're mostly red, white and blue). The minor snag to that idea is that I have no idea what to do for the Jubilee. I did say to the DH that I'd like to drink Gin and Dubonnet (Her Majesty's favourite tipple) in honour of her long and glorious reign, but feel there needs to be more to the whole shebang than me getting squiffy on upper class booze. The sensible thing to do is to share the upper class booze and invite friends round for a bit of a garden party, which is where the patriotic cake stands come in.

Anyway, I have this week's sales to wrap up and post before I pick the kids up for their orthodontists appointment, so I must drag my ample behind off the blogosphere.

Anon, gentle reader. Anon!

4 comments:

Sarah said...

Aren't you a clever personage? They look great.

Sarah said...

Oh and the Dubonnet will keep away the malaria - quinine dont-cha-know...you can't be too careful in this hot and unBritish tropical type weather we're suddenly having.

Dulce Domum said...

I mowed the lawn this aft. and had to have a lie down and a cool drink. Not used to the hot weather. Ah, so there's quinine in Dubonnet (Frenchified my spelling now) - it must taste like alcoholic tonic water. I'll pretend I'm in the Raj.

Sarah said...

I had to look up the spelling of Dubonnet as I'd not heard of it before - according to Wikipedia it was invented for a competition to find creative ways to get the Foreign Legion to take quinine to keep away the mozzies. I want to get some now to see what it tastes like. :)