I love these metal folding strainer steamers. Around here I find them for 25 or 50 cents each at my regular thrift stores.After I took this picture I found one more strainer to use.
How to Make Repurposed Folding Steamer Garden Flowers
Making fun things for the garden is one of my favourite things to so so I decided to create some repurposed garden flowers using thrifted strainer steamers.
Here's what they look like when they're open. They already kinda look like flowers.
The feet came off easily just by twisting them back and forth with pliers until they popped out. Some of the strainers also had a rod-type handle in the top centre spot and that came off easily too.
I spray painted the fronts...
and the backs with 4 light coats of the colours of my choice, and in the shapes that I wanted them to stay in. The spray paint helps to hold the pieces in place so they no longer move.
This is a great project for using bits of leftover spray paint.
To assemble my flowers I used screws and nuts, Marine Goop Adhesive, and stainless steel spoons that I flattened.
For the centre of this flower I used a red knob from a vintage biscuit cutter. The long screw, which I spray painted red, goes right through the cutter, the 3 strainers, and out the back.
At the back the screw is secured with a nut, and that holds the whole thing together.Here you can see that I bent the spoon glued on the back of the flower, and I used a spray painted leftover pipe for the stem.
Here's my finished trio of flowers. This is a pretty easy project with really fun results. The hardest part was the drying time for the spray paint between coats. I would just leave them and go do something else, and then do the next coat. Time to create these does not include drying time.
If you like this project you might also enjoy How To Make a Garden Dish Flower.
To see more pictures of my steamer flowers, get more details, and a few spray painting tips as well check it out on my webs site using the link below.
Resources for this project:
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Popular Project Book
Join the conversation
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Debbie Barnaon Jun 10, 2020
Love these!! so pretty!!!
Hugs,
Deb
- Color Me Thriftyon Jun 11, 2020
Thanks so much Debbie!
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Sherry Bellon Aug 24, 2020
Many gifts for gardener friends Thank you
- Color Me Thriftyon Aug 25, 2020
That's awesome Sherry! You're so welcome.
Have a question about this project?
i am having a hard time understanding where the flattend spoons came into play. This idea is awesome. going to be sure to buy those strainers on my flea market outings
she used them as a hook to hang them on the pipe, you can see it in the photo of the back side of the flower
Where did you get the pipes
I think I would use PVC pipe - it is so easy to work with and inexpensive!
I can't wait for spring to make these...thank you so much for sharing.
You're so welcome! I'm so happy that you want to make some of these flowers.