One of my very sweet students this semester made me this jar as a gift because it "Seemed sort of Pinterest-y" so she thought I would like it. Naturally, I do.
My initial instinct was to use it as a paperclip holder on my desk in my office. But then the semester had just ended, and waiting for next August to use it was simply requiring more will power than I had. Also, before I announced by big move across the country a friend had offered me a just about empty candle jar and suggested that I "make something pretty out of it, like on Pinterest." I'm noticing a theme, guys... But, naturally, I accepted the jar. I realized that I was well positioned to create a set of apothecary jars, which is even better than one full of paperclips.
First, I followed Yellow Brick Home's
directions for removing the wax from an old candle. I boiled water and poured it into the jar, then let it sit and watched the gross lava lam of wax float to the top. In the end, it took a little bit of Goo-gone, a good wash with soap and water, and a final wipe down with rubbing alcohol to get it clean.
Then, I spray painted the lid silver (from it's former gold shade) to match the one I was given.
Next came the real challenge, finding the hardware. I started at the Hobby Lobby where they have a whole aisle
of knobs and pulls! Lovely as they are, they all come with the screw stems permanently embedded in them, so they can't be glued onto something (unless you've got a hack saw, which I don't... I'll have to ask Santa). So, next I tried Home Depot, where I found a similar, sparkly nob for about $5.
I looked high and low for a metal plate like the one under the knob on my prototype, but the craft store people sent me to the hardware store, and the hardware store people sent me to the craft store. Finally, I found an ambitious and helpful associate at Michael's who helped me scour the store for something similar. We wound up in the bead aisle with these, which I can only imagine were intended to be pendants of some sort, which are pretty close to the original.
I brought home my spoils and pulled out my hot glue gun to get to work. Hot glue, I learned quickly, will not affix cheap metal to spray painted cheap metal.
Luckily I had some hard core mosaic glue left over from a Christmas project I never posted about (sorry) which seemed to do the trick.
Overall, I think my student's version might still be prettier. But, I feel pretty good about my matched set.
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