My first experiments in concreting left me with a bunch of lessons learned, much room for improvement – and some actually useful items!

Using cling wrap was a disaster – it was far too delicate and got quite stuck into the concrete and then took an age to remove. Next time I’ll use thicker plastic, oil up the interior pieces or use items I’m happy to throw away.

On with the reveal …

Reasonably successful:

I’m quite pleased with the tealight holders – they are a little more organic than I was anticipating, but I kind of like it. Had to go hard with the sandpaper because of the cling wrap, but will definitely make another set.

I love the bases and am plotting how I can make these the tops.

♥

The house! I really love it. Again I thought I wanted sharp, clean edges, but I kind of dig the imperfections.

And I absolutely adore that completely unintended line separating the roof!

I’m planning to keep it in this ikea cloche for a bit and gaze at it.

Ooooh – seeing it like this makes me think I could surround it with wee lights!

Wait here …

yes! though possibly needs twinkling lights

♥

And the less successful:

I love the pink swirl in this one. I also love the exterior shape. The inside, however, was a complete disaster. I used a toilet roll insert wrapped in cling wrap, the cling wrap didn’t hold tight and the cardboard cylinder pierced the base and is still half embedded and impossible to remove.

I’ve been wondering what to do with those too large bangles from my resin class – they could top a concrete pink swirly vase pretty nicely I think. I’ll be experimenting to take this idea a bit further!

I thought I’d love the shape of this next one (right of the right image), but I really don’t.

Wrapping the candle in bubble wrap and cling wrap was much less successful than I had hoped. Despite my efforts at wrapping, water seeped in and damaged the candle I was using to shape the hole. And the bubble wrap left it pretty misshapen.

I do like the shiny exterior though.

♥

Lessons for next time:
+ do not use cling wrap!
+ do not use objects that could be damaged by moisture for the hole shape!
+ experiment with shiny tops
+ more pink swirls
+ tape totally works to hold milk cartons together
+ you like organic shapes than you think you do

♥

Onward to experiments #2 …