DIY: A Bell for Your Garden

Hello friends....

Have a look, what I have made few days back!!

I think you all know about my DIY passion as well as best out of waste craze. I have made bells using some small clay pots, which are used to serve tea in some local tea stalls. Those which are famous as chai ke kulhad. I have made these on the request of a friend of mine, who is not at all a DIY kind of person. She wanted me to make some bells for her balcony garden. With her permission I have taken few pics of the final product as well as the steps of DIY for you all. So without wasting much time, let's move to it's tutorial. 

Items Required

1- Fine Sand-1 cup

2- Cement-1/2 cup (I had white cement, so I used it. Normal cement can also be used.)

3- Sand Paper

4- Plastic Thread

5- Aluminium Wire /Binding Wire (can get it from any hardware shop)

6- Wire Cutter

7- Small Ghungroos - 8 to 10

8- Acrylic Paint

9- Paint Brush

10- Small Clay pot (Kulhad)

11- Small Ring (I used rings of broken key chains)

Step-1

First by using a piece of sand paper make the surface of the Kulhad as smooth as possible and make a hole on the base by using any sharp object or a nail or using drilling machine. With help of wire cutter cut few pieces of wires of around 3 cm length. Then fold the wires as the image below. Now mix sand, cement and water. Don't make a very watery paste. It should be thick like the cement mixture used in construction of house. 

Step-2

Now make small balls of this cement mixture. Insert the hooks made of wire when the cement is wet. Don't disturb the balls and leave it for one complete day to dry properly. 

When I made this, had no idea about exactly what quantity of the mixture is required, so I used 2 cups of sand and 1 cup of cement. First I made the round ones, but had some more cement mixture left. Then I made different shapes, that I'll use in some other DIY. For this project I have used only the round ones. 

(You can directly make the cement balls by using your hands or can wear gloves while making these, as cement can make your hand very dry and rough. I feel my beautiful gang of ladies will not like to take any risk *smile*. If you are not getting gloves then, can at least cover your hands with polythene bags or else after making the balls immediately wash your hand with hand wash and apply sufficient moisturizer.)

Step-3

After 24 hours the balls are ready. To give it a smooth texture I made a mixture of cement and water (1:3 ratio) and applied a coat of that. Left it to dry for 10 minutes. After this applied a coat of white acrylic paint as a primer coat. 

Step-4

After applying the primer coat, paint it in your desired color combination. 

Step-5

Now using the plastic thread, tie all the small balls and some ghungroos. I used six balls in each bell as per the demand of my friend. 

Step-6

After tying the last ball, keep a gap (less than the length of the Kulhad) and then tie a piece of small stick or a button on the thread. If we will not do this one top ball will completely go inside the kulhad and can't be seen from outside. Then pass the thread through the hole and tie a ring tightly at the end, as shown in the following picture.

Then the bells are ready and this is how it looks... 

I took few pics of these in my living room...and then they are packed and went to their original destination. 

Now I am excited to see how these will look at my friend's balcony garden....

Have asked her to share few pics of her balcony, so that I can share with you all. 

I hope you will find this tutorial useful and let me know if you have made anything like this earlier. 

I have also made an urli using this method before 2-3 years, have a look... *smile*