Elegant Found Object Vases

Haha, okay, it was my idea, but I'll still call them elegant.  I decided to pick up some cheap flowers (baby's breath and purple eucalyptus) on the way home one day because ... well, I wanted to.  But then I got home and realized I didn't have a big enough vase for any of those tall stems.  I didn't want to cut them because I liked how tall they were.

So I went into my found objects box.  (I have one. It's not very big because I really try to limit myself from keeping cool trash.  It's a way of controlling the hoarding tendency that I think a lot of artists / art therapists have)  I found some packaging material from our wedding china (I'm telling you, HOARDING TENDENCIES) and wrapped them into tubes for the vases.  This worked for the eucalyptus stems, which I'm pretty sure don't need to be in water, but the baby's breath needed water.

I went back into my found objects box and found an old - but clean - yogurt container.  I filled it with water and then wrapped the cardboard packaging around it, taping it together on the inside.

This is a peak underneath, but I am keeping the cardboard flush against the top of the bookshelf so nobody can see the yogurt container.

The whole process took maybe 10 minutes, including some trial and error, and was completely free, made out of what would have been thrown away a year and a half ago when we opened the china.

Now, the baby's breath is in its own little vase on top of one bookshelf:

 And the eucalyptus stems are in their own vase on top of another:

So you see, found objects can be easy and crafty solutions to every day problems.  I think they look like nice vases, no longer lowly packaging meant to prevent dishes from break as they are hurled over a tall fence into a back yard - like how our china was delivered.





As an aside, the print of the woman by the eucalyptus is called "Mother Earth's Tears" by Canadian artist Maxine Noel.  We bought it in Stratford this summer when we were there for the Shakespeare Festival.  One day it will be framed.  It's not an original print; we got it at the gift shop, shhh.

The framed art above it is an original paper-cut that we got for our wedding that reads

אם אשכחך ירושלים תשכח ימיני
(If I forget you, Jerusalem, let me forget my right hand)

It's really intricate and lovely :)