How I Made A Miniature Cast Iron Fireplace Set


Miniature Fireplace Set,

I made this set in 2017 and posted them on instagram but I never did post them here. I remember when I was a little girl we had a cast iron set just like it. The cast iron was all twisty and I remember wondering how it got twisted like that. I also remember poking wood in the fire with the poker and cleaning up ashes with the broom and pan when the fire was out. I tried to make this miniature set off of that memory.

I don't have a full tutorial but I'll explain what I did with a few photos and maybe you get some inspiration from that.

What I used:
20 gauge wire
pliers to bend the wire
rustic twine
foil
masking tape
white glue and hot glue
paint brush bristles
black acrylic paint

The middle stem,
The middle part that holds all the pieces up is made from 3 pieces of wire with the ends bent into "legs". I taped those 3 together then wrapped the piece in twine, I did not wrap the legs. I added a dab of hot glue on the one end just to hold the twine in place, wrapped tightly, hot glued the other end then brushed the entire piece with white glue and let dry.

Unfortunately I didn't take any  progress photos of the part that holds all the other pieces onto it but I made it with foil. Look at the cover photo and you can clearly see it's a disk shape with notches cut out for the poker, ash pan, and broom.

I made a disk from foil, cut out 3 notches, and covered the foil disk with masking tape. Then I had to make a slit in the disk so it would wrap around the stem then taped that section once the disk was in place. I ran a bead of hot glue around the stem right under the disk then wrapped a short piece of twine around the glue.





I brushed white glue all over and under the disk then placed a piece of paper towel over the glue, making sure that the paper overlapped the stem  just a bit. After that I brushed the entire piece with white glue and left it to fully dry before painting the entire piece with black paint.


Preparing the other wires,
All 3 wires are wrapped in twine. I glued the twine on the same way I explained in the stem section. You can see I bent the tip of one wire to make it look like a poker.


The ash pan is foil prepared the same way I prepared the disk in the stem section. I place it over the wire wrapped in twine then added masking tape over the foil pan and the wire, holding them together. Then white glue, paper towel, then brushed over in white glue again.
You have to fully cover the foil in tape before adding the paper or the paper will not stick. Tear small pieces of tape and work with those small pieces instead of working with large  pieces of tape.

For the broom I cut a bundle of bristles off of a paint brush. I added a good sized dab of hot glue on the end of the wire that was already wrapped in twine, then put the bristles on top of the hot glue.

I wrapped masking tape tightly around the bundle as pictured then brushed white glue all over the bristles and masking tape.

Once all the pieces had been prepared and fully dried I painted them all with black paint.




A close up,
I embedded my original instagram post here, skip through the photos to the end and there you will find a short video clip of me showing the set up close.


I hope you enjoyed this post and it sparked some ideas for you. Happy crafting!

Comments

  1. Thank you for sharing. Your fireplace set looks great!
    Hugs, Drora

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Sharon, just a few days ago I found you, what a blessing. I am turning a bookcase into a doll house. We recently moved from TN to AR, a very stressful event for us at our ages, but I began working on my dollhouse, wanting to build another hutch/cabinet and found your video you had just put up. I am gathering my items together and hope to begin on it in a few days. But one video leads to another and another, I will have to make myself stop to begin my projects. ") Thank you so much for all you share, how you share, so much detailed information which is very helpful. I am filling up my small notebook with ideas, instructions quickly. Thanks for the inspiration. May you continue gaining your health back and continue to enjoy your creations. In Joy, Vivian

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment