Steampunk Cone Flower

It's How You Put It All Together That Counts

Raiding the boxes of junk in the craft cupboard can reveal some radical things that you wouldn't ever think to combine, but they can make amazing results, like this Steampunk Cone Flower. The sum of the whole is more than the parts, in this case.

If you are a collector (read; hoarder) you will appreciate the tenet that you never throw anything away. You may find you have an inability to let go for emotional reasons, then there is the knowledge that one day you will indeed find a use for a rusty old steamer, or a piece from a hanging lamp, or a weird chrome candlestick that leans to one side.

However you justify your accumulation of gizmos and widgets, you will one day find them invaluable in the creation of your art. Kind of like this old steamer basket that rusted in the storage cabinet.

Some projects start with a daydream, like this one. I dreamed of a whole lot of flowers made of old pieces of junk, assembled and in the garden to highlight a particular bed of flowers, or to throw some emphasis on a part of the railing, or any other reason.

Whimsy is always on my mind, and if there can be a little bit of a pun, all the better.

I like combining metals in different states of rusting or getting a patina, and these three pieces looked like they belonged.

The thought started with the steamer, which I knew was in the bottom of a crate in the craft cupboard, and sure enough, there it was. I dinged it pulling it out impatiently by dragging it through a bunch of half finished signs, but only one of the 'petals' was pulled out, so an easy fix.

Then, I remembered the cone part of a light  fixture that is in a box of parts. There are several, but I just need one.

The chrome part is a piece off a candle holder, but as it had a distinct lean, it was unsafe to use. Thank goodness the thrift store I go to always gives me good deals on those kinds of defective objects, usually throwing them in for free.

The candle holder had to be retrofitted (ie: drilled out) because there was no hole there.

Eventually, all the pieces were assembled in short order, one above the other, and a small grommet was added to fill in the hole in the top of the cone. Then it was all nailed onto a tall stick which was already pounded in to the soft soil of the garden.

And voila! A steampunk cone flower to stand proud in the garden as a unique accent.