The Disaster Behind My Craft

On Monday, I was thrilled to finally have a craft to share with you all – a vase that I made out of cement and test tubes!

I gave a pretty tra-la-la tutorial of how I did it.  I mentioned with nonchalant confidence how I propped my mold up between two bricks to help it maintain its shape, and how I used watery cement to get a nice fill.  What I didn’t tell you is that this craft only worked out on my second attempt.  The first one was a total disaster!

I started out with high hopes for this project.  I assembled my supplies, mixed some thick cement, stuffed it into my mold, and stuck in the test tubes.

I pretty quickly noticed that the edges were bowing out.  Cement is more powerful than a Raisin Bran box, I guess.  However, I wasn’t alarmed and just shoved two bricks on either side to push the edges back into place.  I was so confident that I took a hipster photo showing my toes and my brilliant plan:

Looks pretty good, right?  I was pretty excited to take the mold off and see what I had created.

Womp womp.  There were holes/pits all over it, and the sides were totally uneven.  I had used such thick cement that it hadn’t filled into the mold evenly, even though I tapped the sides and jiggled it to try to release the air pockets.

Then, because the cement was so thick, when I pushed the sides together with the bricks to straighten them back out it pushed it around to dry unevenly.  Some of the charm of cement is having a little bit of variation in finish and shape, but this was overdoing it because it looked obviously sloppy.

I also hadn’t noticed until it dried that the labels on the test tubes weren’t lined up.  It just looked really badly done.

I was frustrated, but I resolved to throw a tantrum try this one again, because I am a resilient adult.  Fortunately, the cement wasn’t fully dry yet, so I was able to break apart the vase and chip the cement away from the test tubes with a hammer and awl.

When I went to do the project again, I had learned a couple of (pretty obvious) things:

1. For a small project like this, use a more watery cement mixture to fill the mold without leaving air pockets behind.
2. If the mold is made of something weak like cardboard, reinforce it before filling – especially with quick drying and thickly mixed cement.
3. Pay attention to all the details before it dries.  There is no re-setting cement!

Ultimately, I am more proud and happy with my final product because I had to take the time to learn from my own mistakes and re-do it.  I also think it is good to share these sorts of stories, because crafts often don’t go as planned!

Have you had to re-do any crafts or projects because they didn’t work out?