Metal allows you to realize many creative ideas. But working with it requires special skills, abilities and devices. However, the result is durable, original and unique.
Thanks to the malleability of the material and the talent of the master, do-it-yourself metal crafts worthy of admiration appear. They become the pride of a personal plot, cottage or home interior. Let's look at a few examples and working methods:
Metal products for the garden
Agree, every dacha owner gradually accumulates various pieces of iron in his household in the form of old tools, unnecessary metal parts, and from them it will be possible to make wonderful metal crafts for the dacha.
Products for the dacha are constructed from everything metal that is stored in a person’s barn. The best method for joining such crafts together is welding, although other joining methods are also used on various structures. Ideas for implementation:
- For example, you can make an openwork panel for a summer house from wire. First, a frame is made from thick-diameter wire, then the image itself is attached to it from thin wire. The theme of the images can be the faces of people, especially the fair sex.
- Stainless steel crafts. They look neat and do not require frequent maintenance, although they are more difficult to make.
- A grasshopper mailbox would be a bold decision. It will surprise and delight your friends, and will also scare away uninvited visitors.
- With a flight of fancy, you can design a puppy or a piglet. By installing the figurine in the garden, it will evoke a smile and positive emotions.
Creating metal objects for the garden will require the availability of certain materials and free time. You shouldn’t regret spending time assembling the figurine when you have time to paint the fence.
At the dacha, owners often use a barbecue - a collapsible or stationary type. For a model with permanent registration, the grill is made from an old barrel. It is easy to assemble it on your own using a drill and grinder. Still, it’s worth using a welding device.
An empty and washed barrel is taken, cut lengthwise in a straight line and divided into two halves. Legs made of reinforcement, pieces of pipes or rods are welded to one workpiece.
The top half acts as a hinged lid, and canopies are welded on for easy opening. It is advisable to work with thin metal parts after gaining some experience.
In order to weld workpieces efficiently and not make a hole with the electrode, you need to accurately select the current for welding and carry out the work with short tacks, constantly monitoring the quality of the seam.
The importance of style matching
Forged forms used in garden design should in no case fall out of the general style in which the main structure and the entire site are maintained. Otherwise, even a beautiful product may feel foreign. Therefore, when placing an order or choosing an ornament for independent work, you should study the samples of artistic forging as carefully as possible.
The appearance of forged elements must correspond to the overall style of the garden
In general, forged elements fit perfectly into any type of landscape. They are appropriate in the precise clarity of French parks, perfectly combined with the emerald greenery of English lawns, deftly fit into the usual Russian manor comfort, and for the fountains and marble of an Italian garden they are simply an integral part.
What is important here is the number of elements in the forging and the ornament itself. Many small details, splendor and volume of the product are not suitable for every garden. The heavy Baroque style is appropriate on a large area, where there will definitely be details that echo the ornaments and a house made in the same spirit. But for a light and thin forged product, no special conditions are needed - it will fit perfectly into any landscape.
Welded metal crafts
Having acquired knowledge and mastered the skills of a welder in adulthood, you can use a welding machine to make attractive metal crafts by welding. During production, two goals are realized.
Firstly, welding skills are consolidated. Secondly, a useful household item is created - a shoe stand or something else. You can make a funny figurine for the garden from used metal cans and unnecessary springs.
Having welding skills, you can start creating an owl from metal. You will need to prepare the following items:
- pencil, scissors, cardboard, drawing paper;
- chisel, hammer, grinder;
- thin sheet metal, welded device;
- bolts with washers, wire, steel rods.
First, an image of an owl is drawn on paper with a pencil. You need to try to make the drawing as beautiful as possible. Then the sketch is transferred to cardboard. Next, a grinder and thin sheet metal are used for work.
To form an owl figurine, you need to prepare body parts with plumage, for the eyes, wings and tail. This is all cut out of iron using a grinder. When forming the eyes, you should make holes in the part to secure bolts in them.
You need to make notches on the surface of the body, due to which the effect of bird plumage will appear. This is where a chisel comes in handy. For the beak, you can insert a piece of bent metal. To form paws, you need to take different rods and connect them by welding.
After preparing all the individual parts, they are combined together using a welding device. Now the craft is ready, all that remains is to paint it and apply a special varnish.
Product made from horseshoes
A horseshoe stand is made as follows. Take two horseshoes, turn them back and weld them together. Another pair of united horseshoes is produced.
At the top of a separate pair, another horseshoe is welded on, with the ends facing up. The two structures are welded into one using the following method:
- installed on the edges with the bottom edge;
- to connect the upper horseshoes, a metal rod is taken and welded to the bottom;
- at the top of the upper horseshoe, a horseshoe is welded perpendicularly, which will look backward with the outgoing edge;
- the second, third, and so on until the end is attached to it, until the topmost one is welded to the side horseshoe on the other side of the structure.
The result will be a product that looks extraordinary and is comfortable for shoes. Welding in a short period of time allows a novice master to consolidate his skills and will be beneficial for the home.
Tires from cars for creativity
Car tires look great in the design of a summer cottage. Moreover, it is a very plastic and flexible material that can be easily painted, so there are many options for use:
You can get a very comfortable and unique ottoman if you cover the tires with thick rope or sew a fabric cover and make a seat out of plywood.
Multi-colored flower beds will create a bright mood even on a cloudy day.
Everyone's favorite border, dividing the flowerbed area, is still at the height of fashion in garden plots.
An original newspaper rack made from half a tire on metal legs in any color is a good idea for scattered magazines and newspapers.
If you stack the tires on top of each other, sprinkle with soil and plant grass, you get a fence that can be made to any height.
Decorative animals in the form of swans, crocodile, dragon.
Deer figurine
To build up your welding skills, you can also make a deer from metal rings. The manufacturing steps are as follows: metal rings d-5, 6 cm are selected, and on the ground they are welded to each other.
Here you need to use symbolic thinking, which will tell you when creating one side of the deer when you need to start raising the animal figurine. Pieces of brick are suitable for this.
Then the rings are welded together, gradually forming the convex body of a deer lying on its side on the ground. Perhaps you can come up with other methods for maintaining the rings before welding them. The product will take hundreds of rings, but the result is worth it.
The deer is brought to its feet. All parts of his body are clearly visible: an openwork head, a voluminous body, deer antlers.
Such a model may well be taken to an exhibition.
Conclusions: there is no shame in taking an idea to bring a metal craft to life using special literature. Having made a sketch on paper, your products will come out unique.
Working with metal involves using your creativity and ideas. Having acquired welding skills, do not delay to start tinkering and creating masterpieces from metal.
Unusual ideas for a cottage-style garden
When creating a landscape on your personal plot, you can use a wide variety of unusual decoration options:
- painted old shoes as flower beds;
- balls of yarn or fabric;
- paths made of multi-colored stone;
- birds and animals made from plastic bottles or other material;
- using old furniture as decorative elements.
When choosing wooden or other decor for the garden, you should remember that it is an extension of the house, its external part. Therefore, when creating a landscape, it is recommended to use home decoration elements or suitable colors and shapes.
Old shoes can be turned into original flower pots
An old cast iron bathtub will also serve as a pond with a fountain.
Wooden fence decor with plastic bottle caps
