Step by Step Garden Totem Tutorial

I have a friend that loves blue glass. Her whole house is decorated in blue glass. Now, blue glass is definitely not my favorite thing so this was going to be a challenge to make a tasteful blue glass garden totem.

I went to thrift stores and bought all the blue glass I could find at reasonable prices. And the prices sure were reasonable. It seems that I am not the only one who does not like this stuff! The most expensive piece was the large vase which is actually quite nice....it cost 2.49. When I brought everything home, I put it through the dishwasher so it would be clean and grease free. Then I spread it out on the table and started the design.

I chose this plate to use for the base. This plate cost 2.29.

I turned it upside down and placed it on newspaper so I could rotate it easily.

Then I looked through my stash and chose this bowl. 49 cents.

I turned it upside down and glued it to the middle of the plate using 'super goop'. You put glue on both pieces and let it dry for about 10 minutes and then they lock into place when you connect them.

Then I chose this big blue vase to use next for the bulk of the pedestal.

I thought it would look better turned upside down so I added glue to the top and after it dried for a bit, I placed it open side down centered on the bowl.

Then I added glue to the exposed base of the vase.

Next I chose a plate with a rain pattern. It is called that because it looks like there are drops of rain on it. It sloped up at the edges so I turned it upside down and glued it to the base of the vase. Remember, if you want to use these outside, you should build them so they collect as little water as possible. Thus, most pieces will be turned upside down.

Here it is so far. What you really want to aim for when building these is an overall uniform look. You don't want to look at them and easily recognize glasses and plates and vases. They should look like a whole piece.

Next I took this cheap vase...it cost 49 cents. I applied glue to the bottom because I wanted to use this one standing straight up.

I placed it right in the middle of the rain plate.

Then I added glue to the mouth of this vase. And then I forgot to photograph the next couple of steps.

But basically I repeated the process by gluing another plate turned upside down to the top of the second vase and then added another smaller blue vase on top of that. Are you following this or have you fallen asleep? Bueller Bueller????

Finally I topped it off with a very small pressed glass bowl turned upside down.

And I glued a glass bell to the top of the little bowl. These two pieces were 29 cents each.

I held a black photo shield to try to get a good shot of this but the totem is bigger than the shield. But you get the drift. This whole totem cost about 8.00. At this price they are cheap enough that if they only last one season they are worth it. Something tells me that my freaky blue glass friend will keep this indoors!

***Tomorrow the winner of this weeks giveaway will be announced and the fancy decorated box will be listed. Stop back to enter!