Wednesday, February 5, 2020

A Coral Shell Stand

I found a thing. A thing in a 19th century magazine that I may be just crazy enough to try one day.
Arthur's Home Magazine, 1861



I have NO IDEA if this would actually work. You take some wire, twist is into a branch coral shape. Then, it is covered in a "soft cotton;" make like 5 of these things. Twist them together to make the larger piece, and tie on cotton cord in different spots to make the tinier branches of coral. Melt some wax, mix in vermillion to give it a coral hue, then pour it over the portions of the frame. I imagine this part would take forever, as you'd want to drip it in a way that it branched out like actual coral. A shell goes on top and I could add paper flowers or some other chimney ornament type thing.

One of these days I'm going to try this. I'll need a ton of space and the patience to drip wax everywhere. Until then, I'll just post the instructions and see if anyone else was crazy enough to give it a go first!

~Kristen

2 comments:

  1. This is one of those things that could look really cool or really homemade. It's so difficult to tell from only an illustration.

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  2. I know, right? It makes me want to do a day where people just recreate this off the wall stuff.

    ReplyDelete

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