Here's a project I recently ventured into and wanted to share. I've seen metal fabricators build steel roses, or flowers, before and some of the ones Ive seen required a fair amount of work. A few weeks ago, we have the Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo come to town and at one of the booths that carried western furniture had some of these steel roses that it looked like someone had made the head out of some scrap sheet metal and they welded a length of rusty barbed wire for the stem. I don't think they were selling them, just had them placed on that coffee table. So, this definately got the wheels turning in my head. Found one how-to video of YouTube and ran with it.
Mine are made out of 22 gauge sheet metal. Cut out 3 1/2in. squares, stacked four of them together, found the center, drilled a hole through all of them. I used a template and drew out the petals, cut them out, and ground down each piece with an air grinder. Each layer was offset and then fastened together with a steel pop rivet. Lastly the fun part, bending and curling each petal, per each layer of steel. I made a sheet metal leaf per each flower as well.
This current project I started out with just three and decided a half dozen would look a little better for the vase I had just bought. I sat the heads of the flowers into some salt water to get some surface rust to them and then dusted them with some red paint.
The next three pictured, I painted those with a candy red and candy green, and then cleared them. Really happy how those turned out.
I'm really happy on how they all turned out and have received piles upon piles of requests for these things. I was able to get some made up for some close friends for them to give to their girlfriends for Valentines Day.
I'm currently working with a local metal shop on cutting out the designs for me, that way I can start mass-producing these things and selling them. Hand cutting all these out for large amounts would be a pain in the butt. Once I get the ball rolling on that and start making a mess of these, I'll start selling them and keep your eyes peeled this spring, I'll probably have a for sale thread of some kind.
Mine are made out of 22 gauge sheet metal. Cut out 3 1/2in. squares, stacked four of them together, found the center, drilled a hole through all of them. I used a template and drew out the petals, cut them out, and ground down each piece with an air grinder. Each layer was offset and then fastened together with a steel pop rivet. Lastly the fun part, bending and curling each petal, per each layer of steel. I made a sheet metal leaf per each flower as well.
This current project I started out with just three and decided a half dozen would look a little better for the vase I had just bought. I sat the heads of the flowers into some salt water to get some surface rust to them and then dusted them with some red paint.
The next three pictured, I painted those with a candy red and candy green, and then cleared them. Really happy how those turned out.
I'm really happy on how they all turned out and have received piles upon piles of requests for these things. I was able to get some made up for some close friends for them to give to their girlfriends for Valentines Day.
I'm currently working with a local metal shop on cutting out the designs for me, that way I can start mass-producing these things and selling them. Hand cutting all these out for large amounts would be a pain in the butt. Once I get the ball rolling on that and start making a mess of these, I'll start selling them and keep your eyes peeled this spring, I'll probably have a for sale thread of some kind.
