Ever break a glass or dish you love? Happens here all the time…..and I can never bring myself to throw the pieces away. I always have big plans to one day make a big mosaic wall or table…..but in the meantime I’ve decided to use the pieces for some smaller projects. This jar holds every single piece of porcelain from a Tiffany vase I broke a few years ago:
My rotary tool and attachment set had all the pieces I needed to finish the edges and add a hole for this project:
Most attachment kits come with a silicon carbide grinding stone attachment……it is strong enough to grind down the sharp edges of a dish shard:
Note: Make sure to wear protective eyewear!
First, I ground down the sharpest edges and then smoothed down the sides as much as possible:
Then I used an abrasive finishing buff attachment to smooth the edges even more. Wetting the tile edges with water helps in the smoothing process.
A thinner silicone carbide grinding attachment is perfect for grinding a hole through the porcelain shard:
Every few seconds as I ground through the tile, I dipped it in water:
The water cools off the tile and helps the rotary tool cut through the piece:
A perfect, smooth hole:
This piece looked like it would make a great keychain and all it needed was the metal ring:
Pretty and so simple. I love that it reminds me of that Tiffany vase too……
A broken china dish would make great sentimental family gifts!
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Great idea!
Love that! Great idea thanks for the inspiration!
Susan
This is so cool! Great job and great tips!
I saw your update yesterday about drilling a hole in a tiffany vase. This is a great idea, and I love how it turned out!
Bravo!!! Thank you for sharing this!!! I’ve been wanting to put holes in pottery pieces and glass for some time but thought you had to have a special drill bit, drill press and water running on the piece. Too much for me to undertake right now. But this??? Hubby has a Dremel. Maybe even some attachments! and water? Ha! Hit the faucet!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Isn’t it funny how sometimes the simplest of things are overlooked. 🙂
That’s what I thought too! But then I was reading through the booklet that came with my attachments and it said that silicon carbide bit could go through almost anything! 🙂
I have pieces I’m saving for future projects, too. Love this idea! 🙂
Now just make sure you don’t drop your keychain! 😉
LOL
What a cute idea! Way to go!
Fantastic idea, turned out very cute!
I love this idea! I just need to get my hands on one of those rotary tools…I’m totally going to share this for my Fascinating Friday post, hope that’s ok??
that’s such a cool and unique idea! love it. :
What a pretty keychain and awesome idea! And I would keep every single piece of a broken Tiffany vase, too!
gorgeous! I went to a show and saw jewelry made from broken china but sadly I have no talent for designing jewelry…maybe you could do a tutorial for that one day??? please please and a chocolate cherry on top??? 😉
This is a very lovely idea, I like it a lot! 🙂
Time to finally use my Dremel!
I’ve started comparing you to ‘Oprah’. When you mention something on your blog I go out and purchase it or ‘note to self – I’ve got to make that’! Bought my Dremel last week from Sears when you mentioned it a few post back. Didn’t see theAccessory Kit so while I was at WalMart I went to the tool ailse b/c I was looking for a bit to drill through glass and guess what I found?! The exact 110 piece Kit! Thanks for all your inspiring post; I love your blog. Keep the creativity flowing!!!
Hi Ms. Ashley, I was wondering if you sleep…I can’t believe how productive you are! And the ideas just keep coming–thanks for your awesome website!
What a wonderful and fun idea! It’s so nice of you to share it. Too bad I don’t have any vases near. 🙂
Have had a stack of plates for months waiting to do this. Thanks for the little tutorial, I can’t wait to get started.
Can you tell me the name of your rotary tool set and where you got it?
It’s by Dremel. You can get them at most home repair stores like Lowes. Thanks!
I really love this ideas…so simple and yet so effective…keep up the good work!
I love this! I just got a Drimmel tool so I’m excited to try this project. Thanks for the tutorial.