Coffee Tin

Last updated on December 26th, 2015 at 12:47 am

Use grouting and plaster to completely revamp the outside form of a tin coffee can.
by Rene Bornman of Renzo Crafts

I love turning throw away stuff into usable things. There are a lot of different things to be done with empty tins, big or small, round or flat. Here I used a coffee tin, open roses and buds plaster castings and some string to form and shape the stems. Please bear in mind that any item made using grouting and plaster will need to be handled with care.

Materials:

• One empty coffee tin (washed and dried)
• Cement grouting
• Plaster of Paris flowers
• Water-based Acrylic paints
• about 1m of string, rope or wool
• Brushes
• Masking Tape
• Contact Adhesive

Project Instructions:

1. Place a good dab of glue on your castings. Let dry for 15 – 20 seconds and position on tin.

2. Use masking tape simply to hold the casting in place until the glue has properly dried. Depending on where you live and what glue you used, this could be anywhere between 15 – 45 minutes.

Do not be concerned if your casting is not flat on the tin, as we will sort this later.

3. Measure out pieces of string depending on the width of the ‘stem’ required.

4. Twist the string around itself and stick to the tin with glue.

It doesn’t look like much now, but the idea is taking shape.

Also use the string to create some ‘leaves’.

Place the tin one side until all the glue has dried properly otherwise the ‘stems’ will come undone when you start painting.

5. Mix the cement grouting to the consistency of thickened cream.

6. Take a flat, broad paintbrush and paint the grouting on the tin, the castings and over the string. Paint a bit extra in under any castings that are not flat on the tin. This just secures them nicely and then later they won’t break off.

7. It is better to apply 3 – 4 thinnish coats. Leave to dry for a few minutes between each coat.

8. You may also find that one or two light coats over the castings is more than sufficient otherwise the castings may start to loose their appearance.

See how the string now takes on the form of an actual stem.

Now to painting!

9. The nice thing with the cement grouting is that it will hold any type of paint.

10. Paint your tin according to your colour scheme, using dry brushing.

11. Firstly use a light brown and let dry.

12. The take a darker brown to create shadows and contrast.

13. Seal with a very good varnish, either with a brush or spray on.

Suggestions:

Use a small tin and stick on some shells or plaster fishes and use in the bathroom to hold brushes or combs.

If you have the moulds but have run out of plaster of paris use left over paper. Soak paper in hot water until soft, blend in a blender, drain through a sieve and mix with some white glue or wallpaper paste. Press into moulds and leave to dry very well.