Cactus Picture Display

Since I made little birdcage tree ornaments out of kitchen whisks last December, I have had a couple of small whisks left. I don’t know what it is but I’ve always thought they look like cacti. I’ve been meaning to do this project for years but the idea of working with wire is very off-putting.

To give you an idea, this is part my pretty much unused collection. It is always too thick, too thin or too hard to work with, until I finally happened upon a particular range of craft wire. At last, something that I could work with and so the cactus project was on.

You will need four whisks, one big one and a couple of small ones, the cheaper the better. More expensive ones have plastic handles but you need some that are entirely made out of wire so that you can shorten them.

I cut the three little ones with some shears. This separated the spiral wound handle but try as I might I couldn’t cut the collection of wires inside. Even a hacksaw didn’t help. What’s that verse about a cord of three strands not easily breaking?

Finally I resorted to my little Dremel with the grinder attachment. There was heat, sparks and pieces of wire flying about but it worked marvelously.

Slide whatever is left of the spiral handle over the uneven bundle to cover it up. But mind that you don’t push it too far otherwise the whisk will come apart.

Secure the smaller whisks to the larger one in whatever reasonably tidy way you can. You can see that I secured mine in two places (with the fabulously soft pink craft wire).

Then spray green and let dry.

Also spray a suitable container that will resemble a plastic pot. I used a kiddies party bucket. You could, of course, use an actual plant pot. This would have the advantage of adding weight in the right place making your cactus more bottom heavy so that it is more stable.

In the meantime, cut a pool noodle to fit into the pot, in other words to be level with the top when standing vertically. Also cut a vertical slit along one side. This will allow you to stand the larger whisk inside the noodle.I used an old noodle that already had a couple of gashes so needed to be repuposed. The noodle will be hidden so you needn’t be too precise.

So the big whisk stands inside the noodle as shown above. Also cut extra pieces of noodle to act as fillers and spray-paint all the pieces.

If you’re stand is going to be top-heavy, add some rocks to the bottom and then the stand with the whisk inserted, followed by extra pool noodle bits. Don’t add the stand without the whisk and all the fillers first, otherwise you are going to have trouble inserting the whisk. Instead, add painted stand part with the whisk inserted and then only add the painted fillers.

To make some flowers I wrapped a couple of strands of raffia around a small ice tong. This is similar to when making a pom-pom except you are not using so many strands. Tie one section of the strands together with a knot but leave the other side free.

Now remove the raffia from the tongs and cut the unbound part. Fold, trim and fluff until you have a flower. Make about three or four flowers.

Stick your flowers onto the cactus using a glue gun.

Now add tiny little craft clothes-pegs here and there to resemble thorns.

Finally, cover the base with some aquarium glass or pebbles.

And hang some pictures, cards or notes from from your cute whisk cactus.