If you know my mom, other than her plants, you know how much my mom loves her 1980′s Italian ceramics. You will find her collection throughout the house. Growing up, you better have been very careful not to touch… actually not to get too close to her lovely ceramics. Boy did my siblings and I hate them… and we certainly still do! Sorry mom! LOL!
For all the Anthropologie lovers out there, I’m sure you recognize these vases. Anthropologie actually came out with them last year but still carry them. Now, the moment I saw these vases, I immediately thought of my mom’s ceramic collection… but of course Anthropologie’s version [to me] are much nicer than their 1980′s counterparts. Ssh, don’t tell my mom I said that;) Nevertheless, they did remind me of my mom and her ceramics! I actually LOVE these vases!! I’m not saying this because I pretty much love anything Anthropologie.. but because I truly think they are beautiful. Of course the colors and design is what attracted me to these vases.
Considering what my mom paid for her ceramics back in the day and considering Anthropologie’s typical store pricing, the cost of these vases is actually not so bad ($18 for the smaller vases and $28 for the larger). I did contemplate on buying one when they first came out, but decided to hold off. The crafter in me told me that just maybe I can make something similar to them. I didn’t have a game plan, but it was a thought that has lingered since then.
Back in November, Brandi over at Blue Cedar Lane shared with us her version of the Anthropologie vase. I love the way her vase came out and love the route she took to make it. Go stop by and check it out! Since I saw her post, I’ve been on a hunt for a vase similar to the vase she had found. However, fast forward to May and still no luck. Yes, I did think of borrowing one of my mom’s, but I don’t think she would have approved… besides it would be smarter to sell them seeing how much they are going for now a days. Don’t ya think?!
I actually did forget about those vases until recently as I was contemplating what to do for Mother’s Day. The Anthropologie vases came to mind but thought they would be more meaningful if I made them. The idea was back on and this time I had a plan! Ready to see my knock off?
This is what I used to make my vases (I made 2):
- Clear glass flower vase (I bought mine for $1 from the Dollar Tree)
- Paint
- Clay (I used oven bake clay)
- Glaze (I used Folk Art’s Clearcote Extra Thick Glaze)
- Towels
- E6000 Glue
First step…
Clean off your vase from any debris and remove the labels from the bottom.
Pour the paint into the vase and swirl around until the whole vase is covered with paint. Turn upside down to allow excess paint to drip. Tip: Before turning it upside down to rest, do allow as much of the excess paint to drip in the paint container (if possible). Also, once flipped, move the vase around about every 15 minutes. You don’t want too big of a puddle forming under your vase. After about an hour I turned the vase right side up and allowed the paint to air dry.
While the vases are drying, we will be making the flowers. Yup, you heard me right! We are going to be making our own flower, so grab your clay and let’s get started.
If it makes you feel any better, when it comes to clay I really don’t know what I’m doing, so the method I may be going about is most likely not the traditional way of working with clay. I’m just going about it the way I would with fondant and gum paste (minus the water/edible glue). Does that make you feel better? No? Well, let’s keep going anyway. :P
Roll out a small ball and form into a tear drop shape. This is the bud of your flower.
Roll out another small ball of clay and flatten it with your fingers until you get a petal like shape. Initially I had used a spoon to help me form the petal, but realized after doing about four of them it was unnecessary (so you will see spoons in the following pictures; ignore them).
Wrap the first petal around the bud. Then make another petal and attach it. Keep doing this until you have formed a flower. With each layer of petals, make them slightly larger than the next. Form your petals as you go.
When you are done, your flower should look something like this.
The bottom of your flower may look like the picture on the left. If it does, just take off the excess clay and flatten out the bottom so you have a flat surface to glue on to the vase.
Bake it in the oven following the instructions on the clay package. I baked my flowers for 45 minutes.
After you bake your flower and it’s cooled, spray it with the glaze. I did two coats.
By the time the glaze on your flowers is dried up, your vases should be all ready to go (if not, just wait until they are). To help your vases stay put, place towels underneath them. Then take a wash cloth and lay it across the indented part of your vase. This is going to help prop up your flowers and keep them in place until the glue dries.
Apply E6000 glue to the back of your flower and position your flower to your vase. I placed my flower on the very top of the vase right below the indent. You can use the Anthropologie vases as reference for a better idea. You may need to adjust your towel. Make sure that the towel doesn’t come in contact with the glue. Let the glue dry overnight.
Ta Da! You now have your very own Anthropologie [knock off] vases!!
I’m loving them! I think I will be making some for myself too!
I hope you enjoyed my tutorial. If you have any questions, please let me know. Also, I would love to hear your thoughts. :)
As a side note: These vases are intended just for decorative purpose, but if you want to use them for real flowers, paint the outside of the vase instead (I recommend gloss spray paint). With the paint on the inside, the water can cause the paint to peel.
Visit my Let’s Party page to find out where I’ll be sharing my Anthropologie inspired vases.
Mayse! These are so nice. The things you create are simply amazing!
I love the mint one with the red chrysanthemum from Anthropology...wonder how hard that flower would be to make? Your vases came out very nice!
I can relate to your mom's ceramics,,,boy did i hate our moms' choice of furniture and home decor in general! I love the vases you made...so simple and affordable! Thanks for sharing!
I love it! SO pretty and such a great knock-off. I've eye-balled those vases for ages. Very pretty, but not a pretty price-tag! I love your version!
These are beautiful and I love them! I wish I could make some right now for myself-thanks for sharing!
Those are beautiful and so creative! I would love for you to share this (and any other creations) at Pin It and Win It Wednesday at www.cheapcraftymama.com-- where you can win free ad-space on my blog!
l love how they came out!
awesome...wonderful post :)
I made some small flowers for jewelry & I was working with polymer clay,there I use mod podge gloss for the shine & its perfect..you can also try..
Thanks for sharing!
WOW. Those turned out beautiful. Looks like you mastered another medium!
Hey, I am giving you the "One Lovely Blog Award" for your awesome blogging goodness. Here's a link to my site with details and the image for your blog: http://mariewetmore.com/2012/05/09/wowzah-the-one-lovely-blog-award-for-my-little-blog/
Thanks for always pushing me to think.
-Marie Wetmore
Wow...Wow...fantastic Maysem!!! So love them...!
These vases are amazing. I would love for you to link them up to my party @
http://qualitycheaphome.blogspot.com/2012/05/piece-of-cake-linky-party-6.html
Nice job!
WOW these are Gorgeous! I would love to make some for Mother's Day but I think I am running out of time. Maybe birthdays this year. Thanks so much for linking up to Creative Thursday this week. I can't wait to see what you link up next week. Have a wonderful weekend.
Michelle
Brilliant! I love it. So pretty! I love Anthro, too. I don't own anything from the shop, but I love walking through it and dreaming :)
♥ Bethany
www.happyhomemaker.me
Amazing! I've been crushing on these vases since Christmas time. I love how you made your own (and so affordably!).
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These look great! It amuses me to think about how much the big wigs at Anthropologie must hate the whole DIY blog scene and their knock-offs. Especially for some of the more ridiculously priced items. You really pulled off these vases so well! Definitely Anthropologie-grumble-worthy. :-)
I absolutely adore these vases. I must make some of my own!!! I've featured these on my weekly blog shout-out...please stop by and take a look! Thank you! http://therookieseamstress.com/2012/05/10/trs-blog-shout-out-3-mothers-day-edition/
HI Maysem So very pretty and such a great technique, wonderful tutorial. Makes me want to try to do that. You are so darned talented, it makes me happier every time I see what you've made. Thanks for sharing a great project.
I got a neat pickle jar the other day and thought I'd try to paint the inside of it and put something on outside to cover up their mold details on outside of jar. I actually got
15 pickle jars, just one of the smaller ones described above.
My husband asked me what in the heck was I going to do with them, he tried to snag one for making sun tea. No way Jose, those are mine. Some people at the craft show last Saturday were giving away. Wish I'd gotten all of them now as nobody else wanted them. Have no way of finding person who gave them away, doggone it.
Well I'd better get outside to go thru more junk for our yard sale on Saturday. Waiting til it gest shady out in back of yard where all shed stuff is. Yesterday we were out there for about 4 hours, I was going thru all the Christmas stuff, I had 7 boxes of Christmas decos. I actually took even more later on to put in sell pile from keep pile.
What a mess, sure hope we can sell all of it or at least enough to make money we need. What we don't sell will be going to the thrift store, not going back into shed. Worked too hard to clean that shed out. Been at this now for about 6 weeks and I'm really sick of it. Only good thing is that it gets us outside.
Hope you have a wonderful HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, your Mom too.
These are fabulous. I just pinned them. What a beautiful result. Great job. Jodi @ www.meaningfulmama.com
These are so pretty! Great knock-off.
This is just awesome!!! I love these so much!!!
These are AMAZINGLY COOL! I love the tut, tons of detail and this project is beautiful. I am a new reader, creating over at http://twelveoeight.blogspot.com - Tanya :)
I love this. Do you know I think even if the paint was all jaggered in the bottom and clear at the top it would still look cool. Like one of your pictures. I will definitely be doing this. Thank you for sharing. Followed over here from 36th Ave
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Your vases are beautiful! Very clever idea.
Dee
http://alapinlife.blogspot.com/
LOVE this...thanks so much for sharing...PINNING it:)
This are so awesome! I'm always up for a good knockoff :)
I would love it if you would link up at Watch Out, Martha!’s link up party: Martha Mondays (every Monday through Wednesday)! Hope to see you there!
http://www.watchoutmartha.net/
These are great! I never thought about painting the inside only of a glass piece. Great job!
www.HoldingAngels.blogspot.com
These turned out beautiful! Thanks for sharing how you made them.
What a great idea! Your vases turned out so pretty! I love that this was so inexpensive too! Thank you for sharing at sunday round up! have a great week!
-kayla :)
I have been wanting a vase like this. I had no idea you could make your own - you should sale these! Way cute.
your vase turned out great! Love how your flower looks. I have some clay that I think I give this a try with.
Thanks for sharing at our Sunday Round Up! Can't wait to see what you have for us next weekend. Have a GREAT week!
xoxo
Heather
Was watching Martha Stewart show last week, it seems she has a new kit with her own clay that makes flowers with molds. Might be pricey but will look to see if our Michaels in Grand Junction has the kits and how much. I'm not that good with my hands anymore so need some help. The molds worked great from what I observed.
I love this so much you did a wonderful job. I will be featuring this on my sight xest week. I'll keep you posted as to when it goes live. Thanks for sharing this @ The Sunday Round Up.
Hope to see you again next week.
Rose
http://www.arosiesweethome.com/
What an awesome tutorial! Thanks for the great photos.
Those vases are so pretty - thanks for sharing them!
Stacey of Embracing Change
Beautiful! I can't wait to make some!
http://www.sumossweetstuff.com
Thanks for linking up!
Sumo:)
Absolutely gorgeous! Loved the way these turned out. Thank you SO MUCH for sharing them at Project Queen's Link Party.
These look great! Thanks for sharing them over at Project Queen. I've been eyeing those vases at Anthro for a while now. I can't wait to try it!
This vase looks so cute! Totally want to try this! Thanks for linking up to our "Strut Your Stuff Saturday." We loved having you and hope to see you back next week! -The Sisters
I have to say, I like yours much more than the originals! They turned out awesome. Thanks so much for sharing at Etcetorize~
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Stopping by to let you know I am featuring you today! Thanks for the inspiration!
Kim@madeinaday
http://madeinaday.com
So so so cute! I want to make these! Thanks for linking up to last weeks party! I have another one up and running today. Looking forward to seeing what you have to share.
http://lovingthiscrazylife-melissa.blogspot.com/2012/05/welcome-to-katie-from-quality-cheap.html
Hope you're having a great week!
XO, Melissa
I can't believe you just talked me into doing this. Your tutorial was so thorough and easy to understand that I now feel like this is something I can try. Darn you!! ;) Thank you so much. I would have never guessed this is something I could do. Can't wait to make my own. :)
Yes!!! How fun!
Thank you for linking up with me last week at Drab to Fab!
http://www.amynjesse.com/2012/05/drab-to-fab-17.html
Come on back by and share more of what you have been doing :)
Have a great one!
Amy@Sugar and Spice
Your being featured today! Come see and grab a button.
http://www.arosiesweethome.com/2012/05/fabulous-friday-features.html
Rose
Oh, yours came out beautifully!! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!! I hope you are having a wonderful week!
Hey Cute Thing! This turned out great! Featuring you tomorrow! XO, Aimee
Hi Maysem, I will be featuring your beautiful vases tomorrow night at Project Queen's Highlight Party. I love them!
I'm sure your mom loved them. And a belated happy mother's day to you!
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Lovely! :)
These are completely darling! You are so clever and talented!!
You could also make plastic spoon flowers. They may be a little easier than the clay and shinier.
However, Yours Look Great!
Beautiful!!! I LOVE Anthropologie, but not their prices. They are a great source of inspiration. I would never have thought of a way to duplicate them. Yours are great! I am going to give that a try!
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These are pretty Cute!!!
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These look beautiful - awesome job! I wouldn't recommend spraying with the Triple Thick gloss though. In about 6 months, it will react with the polymers in the clay and will become very very sticky and stay that way. There are volumes dedicated to what works on polymer clay - not very many products do, unfortunately.
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When you painted your vases, did you just use regular store paint from like Home Depot, or a special craft paint? Also, I have heard that a triple glaze will eventually react with the clay. Do you know of something else to use for the glaze?
Your vases are beautiful
Wow! Thank you for something so completely different! I'm definitely going to try this, they really are beautiful. Your tutorial was great, makes me believe I can actually do this, even making the clay flowers! Thanks so much for sharing such creative genius with those like me who love crafting but come up a little short in the creative brainstorming part.
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woooonderful...daaaaling! I LOVE IT!