Tinker a heart as a tealight holder
Have you ever worked with soapstone? The handicrafts with the soft stones is a bit messy, but great and, above all, many different things can be created. With a little time and creativity, a heart can be carved out of a medium-sized stone as a tealight holder.
You can use the picture to finish off the tealight holder with a heart. You can also find them in craft stores such as B. in the Creative discount already prepared tealight holders and others Utils for working with Soapstone. The mushroom rasp, which you need to work out the candle holder, can also be found in online shops, such as B. in Hobby shops acquire.
Preparation and design of the tealight holder
- Choose a workplace where you can leave your handicraft materials, because you may need several days for the work.
- You are working on the piece of cardboard. Take into account the size of the stone and sufficient space for the utensils.
- Place a damp cloth on the piece of cardboard. Ideally, a tea towel or guest towel is suitable for this. The moisture ensures that the dust sticks to the cloth when filing.
- Make a rough sketch for your candle holder on a piece of paper. You can use the draft to compare your piece of work again and again later.
- Now try to imagine your design on the stone. Look at the stone from all sides and see from which direction it is best to work, i.e. where the surface, the floor and the hole for the candle are incorporated.
- Now you can roughly sketch the contours on the stone with a soft pencil.
Would you like a candlestick or a ...
Work out the heart as a tealight holder
After you have completed your design, you can start working out the candle holder. If you want to rework the candle holder based on the picture, you will need a small saw.
- First, use the saw to carefully work out the rough shape of the candle holder. The base in which the tealight stands should be about 3 to 4 cm thick.
- First saw out a piece horizontally so that the bottom is about 4.5 cm thick. The thickness will decrease due to the later filing. You should take this into account when working with the saw.
- The heart at the back is about 3.5 cm thick. Depending on the nature of the stone and according to your ideas, you can also saw the rear part into shape.
- The next step is to work out the hole for the candle. To do this, use a tea light as a template for the diameter and draw the contours. Then roughly work out the hole with the mushroom rasp.
- If necessary, then saw the rough shape for the heart at the back. Stick to your design or the photo.
- Now work on the candlestick with the rasps. The coarser the file, the coarser the result will be. Just try out the different files to see which one works best for you.
- First you work out the candle holder and then you work out the heart. You will need a little patience for this work.
- When the candlestick has been filed so far that you are satisfied with your work, it is time to fine-tune it. To do this, the piece is processed with the sandpaper to smooth it. First work with the coarser paper and then with the fine paper.
- Then the stand is processed with the sanding sponge. You can use this dry and wet.
- Finally, polish your work with a soft cloth and soapstone oil. This really shows off the grain and color of the stone.
A little tip at the end. A piece of soapstone looks particularly beautiful if you simply leave some parts of the stone unprocessed.
