I love to go into a dollar store and look for a fun item to make over. A few days ago I found some small metal mesh trash cans and immediately thought of a metal cloche.
Here is the trash can that I bought for one dollar
Dollar store metal trash can
My first step was to cut off the bottom of the trash can with kitchen shears (you know the ones that are supposed to cut a penny in two).
Next I used needle nose pliers to squeeze the openings together on the cut end. I squeezed every space on the first coupe of rows, then every other space on the next row, then about every third space until a nice domed area was formed.
top of cut wire trash can
I thought maybe I could get the opening completely closed with twine woven into the holes, but that didn’t work very well. The new plan was to cover the hole with burlap.
I left the twine in the holes to give the glue a little more to hold onto, and it was just too much trouble to take it out anyway.
top of cut wire trash can with twine
I placed a piece of burlap over the top and cut the burlap in a circle about an inch bigger than the hole. Next I cut a second burlap circle a little smaller than the first to go on the inside of the cloche and sewed a zig zap stitch around the circles to keep them from raveling.
I hot glued the large circle on the outside, and the smaller one on the inside.
My Mom had just given me some vintage glass-topped screw in insulators that belonged to my dad, and this would be the perfect handle! I used an awl to create a hole between the strands of burlap. Cutting into the burlap might make the area too weak to hold the insulator. I then poked the tip of the insulator into the burlap hole and used E5000 glue to keep the insulator in place. To give the handle a little more strengh I placed a metal disk on the inside of the cloche and glued it to the tip of the insulator.
vintage glass top screw in insulator
And ta da! Here is the finished cloche. I’m very happy with it!
Finished metal cloche from trash can
This idea was absolutely brilliant! I made one and it turned out beautifully! Instead of burlap, I used a metal dollar store oil burner, cut the part off for the votive, leaving the metal bowl, which was the perfect size to act as a cap. I anchored the cap with a piece of sheetmetal cut to size, and put the sheetmetal inside the bell, and the bowl on top, and put screws through both, which sandwiched the mesh tight. I used a lamp finial for the decoration by drilling a hole in the bowl and threading a bolt into the finial. Thank you for posting such a brilliant idea! Total cost was $5.
May that sounds wonderful! I haven’t seen the dollar store oil burners, but I’ll have to check them out and try your idea. I would love to see a picture of yours!