DIY ~ chicken wire cloche

A few years back when I was selling shabby wares at a local market, I made quite a few chicken wire cloches.

They were hugely popular and I even kept a couple of my favourites for myself.

I’m sure you’ve seen them pop up here on my blog a few times.

 

 

This week when I was re-arranging the top of my dresser with all things grey, I knew I needed those cloches to complete the look.

I looked everywhere for them (even in our storage unit)…. but then the sad realisation struck… the chicken wire cloches were yet another casualty of moving house.

I do have some vague recollections of lamenting over how to pack and store them and I know I would have said something like… “oh, I can just make more of those”.

 

 

So, in order to fill this desperate desire to now have chicken wire cloches, I picked up a small roll of chicken wire at our local hardware store yesterday.

They are super easy to make and incredibly cheap.

This one I made today fits inside a vintage silver pedestal plate.

 

 

Materials:

Chicken wire, tin snips and small pliers, gardening gloves (optional), tape measure.

 

Instructions:

1. Measure the circumference of the vessel you’d like to fit the cloche in or measure how big you’d like the base to be.

2. Using your tin snips, cut a piece of chicken wire to fit the width (your circumference measurement) and your desired height. My piece was 62 cm wide by 42 cm high.

 

 

3. The manufactured edge of your chicken wire will have a neat woven edge. I use this as my base edge.

4. Coil the chicken wire piece so the two sides meet, forming a circle. Twist the cut ends together where they meet to close the circle. I use a small pair of pointy nose jewellery pliers for this job. I also wear my gardening gloves to prevent scratches from the sharp edges of the cut wire. An alternative way to close the cloche sides is to weave thin wire through the two sides, almost like hand sewing them together.

5. To form the closing at the top, I position my hands at the sides approximately where I want the top to close and then I push in, bringing the sides in to meet in the centre. If you keep repositioning your hands around the outside and pushing bits in, a dome will form on the top.

 

 

6. There are several ways to close the top. Sometimes I use a small vintage door handle or a glass door handle. I’ve also used small metal architectural pieces or decorative items. For this cloche I made it even simpler, I folded the excess wire over on itself to form a rounded knob.

 

You can add embellishments around the knob like ribbon or tags. I used some seam binding for mine.

 

 

Now that I’ve got a whole roll of chicken wire, you can expect to see a variety of cloches in all different sizes popping up!

Happy crafting ~ Kerryanne

 

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