How To Weld A Rose On A Stilk

  • By: Monica Shulz

Roses don’t just grow in the garden; they can grow on your scrap metal too if you know how to work that out. With just a piece of rebar and a plain metal sheet, you can produce a masterpiece and turn it into a present or souvenir for someone special.

Tag along with the author of this DIY video details all the simple steps involved in the exciting process.

Prepare The Rose Template

Gather all the materials you need for the project (sheet metal, metal rod, and a stencil) and start by designing and trimming your rose. Print your rose template from your computer to help you produce the metal rose with minimal material. As you print, remember to scale the rose to align with your metal sheet.

Affix And Cut Out The Rose

Lay your printout on the sheet metal, making sure to maximize the edges. Then glue it in place before reinforcing the edges with tape. In that fixed position, start cutting out the template using tin snips. Go around every inch of the edge to produce the actual rose shape intended.

Twist The Trimmed Rose Shape

After extracting your rose model from the sheet metal, it is time to give it a real rose identity. This is only possible through twisting as you cut around the spiral edges. Grab your sheet metal bending pliers and get to work.

Twist the rose from the inmost petal as you advance outwards. Where you need to ease the twisting, engage the tin snips again to create a more functional room. Ideally, you should end up with a neatly spiraled rose flower head with protruding pieces birthed in the twisting and cutting process. Ensure you cut off the projecting sheets to avoid hurting your hand.

Attach The Rose To Its Stem

You can do this on a flat floor surface without much hassle. Simply place your rose head and rebar in position and start arc welding them on each other. With a partially hollow section below the rose, inserting the metal rod is easier as you weld all around the circumference.

Bend The Stem

After successful welding, give the newly formed piece some time to cool down. Once it is cool enough to hold and work with, it is time to bend the metallic stem slightly to give it a more natural appeal (as you would hardly find a straight rose stem in the natural).

To bend the stem in a subtle sense, you will need a clamp and a reject piece from an old electric off-road longboard (or another distorted linear shape). Clamp both the rose stem and the recycled piece together in a parallel alignment. The piece has two bumpy holes to facilitate the intended bending.

As you tighten the clamp lever, the disproportionate holes squeeze the stem in a somewhat crooked angle to yield a wavy-like appearance.

Extract The Leaves

On the remaining sheet metal after extracting the rose, draw up to three-leaf shapes or models using a dark marker. Next, using your tin snips, start cutting out the leaves one by one along the marked lines. Ensure you perfect the leaf shape by trimming the excessive edges.

Contour The Leaves

Since you are after a natural appeal for your rose, everything about the design must attune to nature. Start hammering the leaves against a wooden board using a chisel or chisel hammer to engrave the usual pattern of a natural leaf (veins and all).

Affix The Leaves

Back to your welding posture, arc weld the leaves on the stem in a cascading fashion to end up with a natural-like rose flower.

End Product

There goes the perfect metallic rose. A complete byproduct of scrap material, the rose is not only stunning but also maintenance-free. No need to water it at all! You can give it away as a gift or set it up somewhere on your desktop as a decorative piece.

Conclusion

Adding artistic décor to your ambiance is a breeze with a few pieces of scrap and the right tricks. The author of the video has dumbed things down for you, and what’s left is taking the first step to becoming a metallic DIY florist! Good luck!

Engage the author through his ProjektHeld YouTube channel to learn more on turning waste into wonder. With a current subscription of 1,920 subscribers, DIY creativity is simply infectious.

Photo by ProjektHeld / CC BY 3.0