I was in our cellar digging around for things to display plate flowers on when I spied this package:
{{gwi:195564}}
I had stored away some dinner plates some years ago. That is what I'm short of!
there is one green glass plate, 4 yellow, 1 orange pinkish, and 2 green with the design.
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And then I remembered some pretty plates that I kept even tho I never used them, from back before I made plate flowes
There is one pink 2 green and 3 of the maroon with petals drawn on the rim:
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So I made these:
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The doll dishes are not centered because the rose on that plate is so it shows through the middle piece. I'm going to put a little arc of beads to balance them out when I get around to embellishing.

I figure I have about 50 counting the ones left over from the last sale. I did find some more spoons. So tomorrow I'll put spoons on some of the cured ones.

TFL!

Kathy

Wow!! Beautiful flowers! I really like the plates with the little flowers and especially love the blue and white ones. 50 plate flowers is a lot. You must have great craft fairs to go to with a lot of buyers. Can I ask how much you charge for these pf's?
I have so much glass piled all over my garage that I just can't see what I need without digging around. And..I just got home from the thrift store with more. It is a sickness. Last night I tried and tried to figure out how to embed photos in a message but after 3 hours I just had to give up. I even looked at the help page to no avail. How is it done?
Marilyn

Gasp !!!! I'm drooling :) :)

I could make them day in and day out ... they're so much fun . I'll have to make some over winter for my spring yard art sale. Can I ask ( I forgot ) are you using copper pipe or PVC for the posts ? If you're not looking for any kind of fancy spoons - the dollar store has them in packages . Plain Jane & easy to bend. You sure inspire me !! Kathy !

Flowers I've only sold them at one craft sale, and those were priced $12 to $18, with most of them being $15. I sold 22. I'm going to drop the $12 and my new range will be $15 to $22. I think the red glass ones will be $18 or $20. A few of the other plates were quite expensive like the big dragonfly plate (looking at the pic i thought what a great clock that would have made!) and the blue flower plate. Those will probably be $22.
Here's a picture of the red glass ones:
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I sell the stems separately because part of my sales pitch is that they can be hung on a trellis or a fence. I also encourage people to use what they have if they have anything. I've been using the grey pvc electrical conduit because it is more uv resistant. I spray paint over the black lettering with grey paint, then dh cuts it into approx 2ft lengths, pointy (45 degree angle) on one end. For one stem and a 1' piece of rebar that I buy at HD already cut to length I charge $3. In my own garden I kind of like the metal electrical conduit because I like to have some of them be really tall and I'm not sure that would work with the pvc.
I would like to do more interesting "stems" but I'm not sure that would make the flowers sell better or that I could get more money for them. But maybe in my own garden...
Kathy if you are still making plate flowers it was incredibly kind of you to let me have those pretty flower centers.

Kathy

I forgot to tell flowers how to post embedded pics. And I also bought more stuff today when I was out looking for spoons. (I HAD to buy red glass for 50 cents, right?)

Anyway, First put you pics on a website such as photobucket or flicker. I use photobucket. You need to copy the HTML CODE of the pic and paste it into the body of the messate. I do this by having photobucket open in one tab and my post in another. Just go back and forth between the tabs (once your pics are in the site). The code just looks like a bunch of gibberish but when you pre view your message you should see the pic. In photobucket you can hover over the pic and the codes appear below. Just clicking on the html code copies it.
One thing to keep in mind, make albums and and think about organization right from the beginning. If you move a photo that you have posted somewhere around after you have posted then the link is broken and the pic will disappear from the post.
Hope this helps
Kathy

I'm so glad you have the sickness, Kathy! lol I really enjoy seeing your pictures. Love all your wonderful plate flower ideas. I can't decide which ones I like best! Good thing I don't live nearby or I'd be broke. he-he Keep those pictures coming!

Your plate flowers are beautiful. You have certainly been busy.

I made a few for my garden and they looked really nice, especially the clear glass ones. I plan to make more this winter to hang on my privacy fence next year. I was watching Sarah Richardson the other day and she was arranging a collection of plates on her wall. She glued a metal hanger on the back of each plate. I had not seen that done before. I am going to try to find some of them for my plate flowers.

Thank you for sharing your great work.

Marylee

Some people here used to cut off the bendy parts of a coat hanger so they had a v or u shaped piece of wire and glue that on for hangers. I have never done that.
Kathy

Absolutely gorgeous ! I especially like the red ones. I've never seen that color. Is it actually red glass or is it painted glass ? For the plate flowers in our junk garden, we used copper pipes & set them in concrete in clay pots, but I have to admit that if I was to try to sell them, the cost of the copper, the pots, the concrete & the extra labor would add a lot to the sales price. I agree that selling them without stems, but advising the buyer on all of her options is probably the best way to go. I can't imagine using coat hangers. They go rusty so fast in the damp New England climate. Heck, they used to go rusty in our damp basement, let alone outside ! - Laura

Your plate flowers are GORGEOUS, crete! I would ship you spoons but that would probably make it too expensive, too! Hope you can find some good ones soon!

The red glass which you showed previously is still so 'drop dead gorgeous!' But the one that has my name on it (if I lived near your show) is the blue & cream one in 4th pic, top left....so LOVELY! TFS your pics! Good luck at the next show! Jeanne S.

They're drop dead GORGEOUS! Where on earth did you find that much red glass. It's almost nonexistent here.

Jeanne, I so glad you like that one the best. I LOVE it! and I was thinking maybe I'm just odd and no one else will like it. I've had that center for years and never found the right plate for it until just the other day at the SA. Its a Pier I plate. I did find some spoons. Still need more but I'll keep looking.

It is real red glass,Laura, not painted. Real red glass is often referred to as "ruby red" which I think means that it is red through and through. I lucked out and got some for 1/2 price ($1 to $2 each). Also I've been using some red glass cups as the middle of a few pf's, some plain smaller and fancy larger cups, that I also got very good deals on cuz they had no saucers. When I bought the smaller plates for $1 each, I could have gotten the dinner plates for $2 ea. I really wish I had now, but at the time $1 was my limit per piece. That was before I started to sell them.
In my quest for spoons yesterday, I got some red glass bowls that I really can't figure out how to use but at 50 cents each I can break them up for mosaic if nothing else. So I bought all 8 lol. They are not the right shape for floweers, kind of deep with a large diameter flat bottom and nearly straight-up sides. And an abstract not very pretty pattern shaped on the outside of the sides. I'll take a pic and maybe start a thread to get ideas on how to use them.

Thank you everyone for your compliments and support.

Kathy

Kathy~

All of your plate flowers are beautiful and I'm sure you'll have no problem selling them. Of course, the red plates are GORGEOUS, but my favorite one is that dragonfly plate!! I wouldn't have been able to make a flower out of it though...would have kept it in the house. Good luck in your next sale.

You sure get good plates there! The blue & white is so lovely, my favorite! The little flower centers are beautiful. You should do well at your sales! Good Luck! Jan

Marilyn - Here's a really great FAQ from the New England Gardening Forum on how to post photos

Here is a link that might be useful: How to Post photos FAQ