CONCRETE DIY

lunes, 20 de febrero de 2017

I would love to tell you this DIY was a success, but I can´t. I can’t because although it doesn’t look bad and I am gonna use it quite often, this concrete ‘pot’ or ‘whatever’ project has a dark side.

A couple of months ago I saw an ashtray made of concrete at Zara Home and I thought of buying it later. However, what happens when you say you would buy it later? Answer: is always too late. The ashtray disappeared; I checked the website a zillion times and it happened it never came back. I have to say at this point, as you can imagine, the one at Zara’s it was waaay cooler, with a metallic spot on top for the ashes I wasn’t able to reproduce because, hey…I am not a blacksmith.

Then, as I couldn’t buy it anymore, I decided to make one. I checked online how the simplest way of doing something similar was.

YOU WILL NEED:

Concrete mix

Water

Milk carton

Disposable container for mixing

Stick to stir (I used a chopstick)

Scissors to cut the carton milk

For mixing the concrete with the water, I followed the instructions in the package, which were 1 part of water with 4 parts of concrete. I had to add more water because it looked too thick. At the end, it looked like a cake mix, so I decided to myself that it looked good. I poured the mix into the milk carton like 1/3 of its capacity. Remember that once you add the other container in, the mix will rise up. Here is when the dark side begins: I read that you could use smaller carton milk or something similar to make the interior shape, but I didn’t have anything similar around my house. Then, I found the one is in the picture, but something went wrong when I introduced it in the mix: the concrete started to leak through the carton and it was a complete mess. I started thinking about what could I use…I wander around the house and suddenly I found a forgotten glass candleholder that looked perfect. I thought that, if I grease the glass with oil it would be easier to take it out later. It didn’t work. Like…at all. I still think it’s a good idea though. Maybe with carton would have worked.

When the carton milk was filled and the smaller one was on its site, I pound the containers a bit to release air bubbles.

I built a fort, as you can see in the pic, because the weight of the concrete bent the edges.

In the instructions, it was said that in 3 hours it should be dry, but it wasn’t. I wait until the next day, when it was completely solid and…yes, cemented. I peeled the carton; then, I tried to pull out the glass container. Obviously, I couldn’t, so I decided it didn’t look so bad (what else could I do?).

I assumed my defeat against a glass container and faced the reality: adaptation. In fact, having the glass inside the concrete container it wasn’t that bad. Now, if someone wants to use it as an ashtray, it’s ok, because it’s easier to clean; I can use it as a candleholder; I can put some scent oils…