One of the coolest and quite modern things to do for decoration is work with metals. They give a refined finish to surfaces, they are shiny and elegant, not to mention they provide the futurist, state of art look that many modern and contemporary decor sets implement.
But you don’t have to go that further to bring a metallic touch to your decoration. Pennies are something that are often abound and bothering in our pockets, specially 1 or 5 cent coins that must gather abound to worth something, so what about saving those pennies to implement it as a finish for small objects in your house?
We are going to learn here how to make vases with pennies, and you will be able to reuse that old and neglected planter with style and refinement disposing a very simple set of resources and easy hand work.
Surfaces: Pennies Vase
To create your vase with pennies, there is no big secret but to watch out for some details and strategies to make this creation affordable, easy and rewarding.
Pennies are either made of nickel, bronze, tin, zinc and steel, in many different alloys, so you can as well have many different looks, from brass to golden and silvery finishes, is up to you what kind of shining hue will work better with your ambient.
Silvery pennies often make the visuals more minimalist and clean, while brass ones give a very beautiful art deco touch to post-modern ambient, and the golden ones are quite sumptuous, giving a high wealth look for the ambient.
However, pennies, even though are of very few worth, at numbers they become valuable, so here you have to watch out for the size of the vase or planter you are planning to revamp with the pennies, otherwise the final cost can be a surprise.
Materials:
- Pennies, as much as you need to cover your vase or planter
- Super glue
- Epoxy resin (optional) and brush for application
- Gloves (rubber or surgical)
Instructions:
Basically, all we need to do is to glue the coins to the vase. But before we get to that, you have to prepare the surface of both items: pennies and the vase.
For the vase, the process is quite simple, as you just have to wash it well with soap and water to remove any dust, debris or other residues, like grease, because these elements can compromise the performance of the glue. You don’t want your pennies dropping from the vase after some months, so get your vase appropriately clean.
If you are dealing with a wood surface, is appropriate to sand it before application so the surface gets smooth and any porosity that could compromise as well the glue is fixed
The pennies require the same treatment here. This may be a little bit boring, but you have to check your pennies, all of them, carefully, to be sure they don’t have any kind of intrusive element as well attached to them. Some coins may be damaged with glue tape remains and other sticky elements sedimented.
If that’s the case and it is too much a bother to fix them, dispose of them and get new ones. What you have to do here is just wash them with soap and water as well to remove grease and dust, tossing them all together to a bowl, no need to brush each one of them at all. Let them dry out over some paper towel leaves and then you can start the process
Now to apply the pennies, wear on the gloves, as this will prevent the grease from your hands to compromise once again the surfaces. To apply the coins, you don’t have to worry with an exact order. Randomizing the application provides a quite good look when it comes to brass coins.
They offer the most artistic and rich results, while the gold and silver ones will work the same regardless of the order. Apply one or two drops of glue to each coin, that may be enough as the glue spreads as you press it against the surface of the vase.
Careful to do not apply to much glue and risking to create sediments in the surface of the vase that will compromise the smoothness of the surface.
When the application is finished, you have to make up your mind whether the shining is good enough or you would like to coat it with something else. For the latter, we recommend the application of epoxy resin, as it is colorless, translucid and gives a glassy finish.
For the epoxy application you will need a proper brush. After you are done with the coating, just let it dry out and your vase is ready.
Depending on the format of your vase, you can get many different and impressive outlooks.
And do you know you can do the same for walls? The process here surely will be much more laborious as well as expensive depending on the size of the wall.
You can as well repeat the process on tables. The steps are exactly the same, specially considering wood. Sand it and then apply the coins, the result is as pretty as can be.
For this case by the way, you will really want to apply epoxy resin, check how it looks shiny and seamless.
Summing up, be creative and apply coins wherever you wish it would look great because it will! And you don’t have to gather a lot of coins daily if you are in a rush to have your project finished. You can exchange money notes for them anywhere, from your bank office to grocery stores.
Abby Larson
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