Blacksmithing grape vine support

Not all of my blacksmith forge projects are big complicated ones. I also enjoy bringing simpler ideas to life.

blacksmithFor this project I made a simple but elegant support frame for a grape vine. It needed to be strong, and capable of taking the all year weight of the vine. It also provides the shape around which the vine will be trained and pruned.

This picture shows the support, which I painted in zinc rich primer and matt black to give it some extra weather protection.

 

 

 

 

blacksmithAnd here it is in the pot with the vine. I have pruned the vine to give the 3 main stems to provide the shape. It will take a couple of years before the vine fills out, but already it looks better than in its old home at the end of the garden up against a fruit cage.

The permanent home will be in the citrus area, which you can just see top left.

Face to Face Topiary

This week I was asked to do a bit of topiary: creating a face in a hedge.

The hedge was left uncut this year to produce some extra growth to give me something to work with. This is my first ‘cut’.

hedge topiary 1 hedge topiary 3 hedge topiary 2

 

It is still work in progress. The whole thing needs at least another season’s growth to be able to develop the nose, ‘harden off’ the edges, and develop some more detailed features. The eyes also need some work to make them a little less sunken and mask like.

Give it another 2 months and I will clean it all up. By this time next year it should look like a friendly face.