Upcycling,…way UP, glass globes for Fall!
We guarantee you will begin seeing these humble glass globes in a new way when you see them at garage and yards sales and at Flea markets and thrift shops. I love white pumpkins anyway, and these can be kept from season to season. Sue Gerdes started by painting the inside orange, then experimented with all white ones in a glorious, serendipitous way. Classy, glassy globes,…easy to get for yourself this Autumn.
How to recycle glass globes into pumpkins
Sue’s first pumpkin is sprayed orange inside and has a branch piece for a ‘stem.’
First try,…looks ok!
Sue, then, started collecting all the globes she had…
Sue says, “The biggest globe is a light I found so it has a plug already. The silver pumpkin was a Thrift store find and still had it’s price tag from the store on it…a mere 12.00 but got it for 50 cents. It was really a Christmas ornament but anything round or close to round can be a pumpkin (as u know). The rest are light fixtures.”
The cut paper pumpkins are from paperback books, cut a few pages at a time, and with the covers glued or paper-clipped together. For complete instructions, search ‘Paper book pumpkin.’
Then came a trip to an antique junk yard where more glass globes were found. Sue says, “The second biggest, shown above, was bought at our favorite junkin’ place in the Black Hills at Boyd’s Antiques.”
Pumpkin…in disguise
Then, Sue rediscovered one fluted globe she’d squirreled away for years. She says, “Look what I have been hoarding for 10 years…just knew I would have a place for it..it’s a PUMPKIN!”
Piling up a pack of pumpkins.
How To:
Materials
Globes
Wire
Silk leaves or real Fall leaves
Glue or Hot glue
White mini-lights
Once you’ve collected all the globes, cut short pieces of real branches for stems, attach them with glue or hot glue to the tops of the globes (the larger openings will be at the bottom.) Sue wrapped a small piece of branch with jute then took some springs for curly tendrils and popped them into the stem. You can also coil wire around a fat pencil or marker. Attach silk leaves, or real ones near the ‘stems.’
To paint the pumpkins orange, silver or any color, tape newspaper to the outside. With spray paint and working outside, spray paint straight down into the globe. Magic! The inside has the color, so the outside is wonderfully shiny. Sue says, “I spray painted the inside with Krylon indoor outdoor Gloss Pumpkin Orange. It takes several hours to dry so while drying leave it on paper towel or something that air can get thru cause it will puddle and make a mess.”
Sometime this ‘pumpkin day’, Sue also made pumpkin muffins. She likes to go pumpkin all the way,…go ahead grab one…
When Sue makes pumpkin globes she likes to make pumpkin muffins, too!
Nom, nom, nom…. Meanwhile, Sue has added strings of white lights inside the pumpkins and “Ta-dah!’
A great display for inside or out!
Pumpkins at dusk
One idea sparks another
Alice Keiner’s version of pumpkin globes
To paint the globes, direct spray paint nozzle straight down into the globes and let dry, add branch ‘stems’, faux Fall leaves and curly wire tendrils. The wire can be wound around a dowel or pencil, then adjusted to the size you like.
Pumpkin bloopers…
Whoops! A photographer does have her challenges… Wind! Luckily, nothing or no one was hurt.
