You can’t be springing without flowers and certainly not sans a vase. But today we are here to talk more than just about a vase makeover, as we will making one from scratch with cement and a lampshade. I have a few cement projects under my belt of the likes of marbled coasters, cement planters, cement studs but this time I wanted to try mix-media and thus cement woven rope vase came into being. There is so much you can do when you have no boundries and you are free to chose your combination.
Now, I will admit this project would have been much easier if I had a lampshade with connected rods and that I didn’t have to build from scratch. Overall I love the texture, its sophistication despite its simplicity .
This vase is for the modern girl who loves whites and pastels. You can make it in your style if you paint the cement with the color fo your choice. But, I personally like the cement texture and this is why I mixed a dye instead of painting to retain it.
Now, I think we should move ahead to see what we need to make this vase come alive
Materials:
+ Renate lampshade
+ IKEA bowl
+ Cement 4 lb.
+ Red food color/dye /paint
+ Rope 14 ft.
+ Gorilla glue
Steps:
1.We will first make our cement base. In order, for us to remove the cement base from the bowl, we will need to massage it with some vaseline.
2. I wanted my cement to be pink in hue so I added some red color dye. 
4.Pour your throughly mixed cement mixture to your bowl and leave it aside in a safe corner to dry for two days.
5.Remove the lampshade fabric/cover and the inner aparatus to make space for glass to be later placed in for fresh flowers
6.Cover the fabric lampshade with some cardstock and insert your larger ring. Now dab some glue onto the ends of your metal rod that we cut out from some wire hangers. Tape the glued area for extra support. Once dry place your second ring and glue the free ends of the metal rod to the ring above it.
7.In order to ascertain the length of rope required wound your rope around the lampshade skeleton and cut around one and half times the length. Now you can go ahead and insert the rope to the other side of the wire and tie around the rope with some thread like so
8.Begin weaving by going one over and one under the metal rod. And once you reach were you had first begun, take a “U” turn and weave again. Continue weaving until you finish the entire thing.
9.Prepare the surface by lightly dampening with a cloth ( so to help gorilla glue bond well) Line the cement with some gorilla glue and place the woven lampshade over it. Let it bond for an hour or two.
Place your flowers in a glass and plant in your vase. And if you love my flower bouquet, you can get them from flowers.ae. They have a lovely collection of flowers and I would be looking forward to snagging some more from them. And if you are wondering what about that tea set, it is an antique piece that was lying in my kitchen shelf that I thought of using for the shoot. With some fresh flowers and a warm cup of sencha tea, I am loading myself with anti-oxidants and smelling fresh scent, what more can I ask for..
I hope you like this DIY cement woven rope vase, if you did then don’t forget to share with your pals. You may never know this might just brighten their day
P.s. My laptop’s screen cracked, and I have yet to find a solution for it. The reason why the quality of images kind of suck is because I had to use picmonkey as solution as I write from a i3 slow pc 🙁
