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Tuesday, 8 October 2013

... and a Conker Pot Stand

The best thing about Autumn is going on a nature hunt! Mally and I went out the other day and had a great time crunching in the leaves, picking up acorns, fir cones and most of all CONKERS! There are tons of horse chestnut trees around here and we soon had a whole bag full. Now, what to do with them?!  Back at home, laying them out on the dining table an idea hit - how about a nice centrepiece bowl. As you can tell, that's not what I ended up with!

I started off with laying out all of our conkers. Mally wanted the big round ones, and I wanted the ones with a flat bottom. We were both happy! From here on, this post is actually an account of a series of fails before I was able to get the final piece sorted!
After selecting the best ones, I had the idea to glue them to each other using an upturned bowl for the shape. After successfully doing the base (with the aid of a hot glue gun), the sides were reluctant to stay in place. Turns out that they were just too heavy and DID NOT want to be a bowl.
Not to be perturbed, I decided that the flat base could be a great start to a a pot stand for all of the stews and casseroles that we (Duncan) will be making now it's Autumn. So I carried on glueing, but they all kept coming apart when I tried to hold it up. My structure was just too weighty and there were not enough joining points. Plus the shiny surface of the conkers wasn't the greatest for the hot glue.
I had to keep peeling blobs off that had cooled and come apart. I wasted 2 mini sticks before nearly giving up.
As a final thought (before sacking the whole project off) I decided to try and glue them to some brown felt... success! I was able to glue them to each other and to the felt for support, and then trimmed off the excess.
A project that should have taken minutes took me hours, but it worked in the end!*
Have you got any easier conker projects? And just out of interest, what do they call conkers outside of the UK?

 * If you've spotted that this is one of those individual sized casserole pots then bravo! It really was a great big fail!!!!
We are linking up to these parties!
18th October 2013: Update - this post was featured here at Creating My Way to Success

21st October 2013: Update - this post was featured here at Upcycled Stuff and here at Love 2 Upcycle
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19 comments:

  1. Joanna O'Sullivan8 October 2013 at 19:25

    They're called conkers in Ireland too. I love this.

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  2. Celtic Thistle9 October 2013 at 08:02

    Congratulations on persevering and getting a pot stand in the end!

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    1. Simsim10 October 2013 at 15:49

      Thank you! It was worth the effort (just!) xx

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  3. Lucy Blossom14 October 2013 at 16:41

    It looks great, well done for persevering, it was worth it!

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  4. Anonymous14 October 2013 at 17:48

    In Oregon, they're called filberts, but in the rest if the US they're called hazelnuts.

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  5. Unknown14 October 2013 at 17:48

    Ha! I saw your project linked up to the upcycled linky party at http://love2upcycle.blogspot.com/2013/10/upcycled-linky-party-26.html and HAD to click through just to see what a conker was. :) I'm in the states and have only heard them called chestnuts.

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    1. Simsim15 October 2013 at 12:34

      Thanks Tricia! I thought they might be. We call the edible ones chestnuts, so I think we call these conkers to differentiate. (I may well have made that up!) xx

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  6. Sew Lah Tea Dough15 October 2013 at 13:40

    This is amazing!! I love conkers but I now live in Canada after moving from England and they're harder to find - the squirrels get to them toooo quickly! I call them conkers and people don't know what I'm talking about... I think they just go with the horse chestnut name. And they don't know about the playground game to play with them!! I love this idea, pinning now to my 'Fall into Autumn' board - thanks for sharing :)

    Hannah ♫
    Sew Lah Tea Dough `

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    1. Simsim17 October 2013 at 13:05

      Thanks Hannah! Not many playgrounds here allow it any more which is sad... Health & Safety...! xxx

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  7. Jill16 October 2013 at 08:13

    This is such a cool project! I grew up in the UK and call them conkers too - don't know if we even have them here in Australia!!
    I was wondering if you’d mind if I featured this in a top 10 upcycles of the week post. I’d like to use just one photo from your blog and put a direct link back to your post. Please let me know if this would be ok.
    Thanks so much,
    Jill @ Creating my way to Success
    http://www.jembellish.blogspot.com/

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    1. Simsim17 October 2013 at 13:04

      Thanks Jill! We would love for you to add it to your features! xx

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  8. Jill18 October 2013 at 01:57

    Just stopped by to let you know that I featured this project on my Top 10 Upcycles of the week!
    Top 10 Upcycles of the Week
    Hope you have a great weekend!
    Jill @ Creating my way to Success

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  9. The Causal Craftlete19 October 2013 at 01:55

    This is SO cool! I remember picking these off the ground at my Grandparents house when I was little. I've always called them Buckeyes. Thanks SO much for sharing at the Frugal Crafty Home Blop Hop! Have a wonderful weekend!
    Katie

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    1. Simsim20 October 2013 at 12:14

      Thanks Katie! Buckeyes is a new one on me! xx

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  10. Allison @ Dream a Little Bigger20 October 2013 at 00:02

    I'd never even heard of conkers before and I don't know that we have anything like them in my part of the U.S. but they sure look neat. What a clever idea to make a trivet out of them :)

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    1. Simsim20 October 2013 at 12:15

      Thanks Allison! As you can see from the comments, there are quite a few different names for them!! xx

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