Decorate DIY. April 3rd, 2024

45 Broken plate crafts using china glass

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Creative uses to fix broken plate and use it to make art and crafts like jewelry, pendants, and mosaic projects for home and garden decor.

Ever wondered how to fix a broken plate? You simply create broken plate art. Nothing satisfies crafters more than repurposing discarded material into useful items. This practice not only saves a lot of money but helps to protect the planet altogether. Sometimes we accidentally break glass, china glass, or vintage dishes that we adore and look for ways to preserve them. We’ve gathered excellent ideas to help you achieve this task without hassle. So, here is your ultimate guide to putting a feather in your cap by giving a second life to old, broken, and discarded old plates by turning them into useful items.

What to do with broken plates?

How to use a broken plate?

Gather broken, cracked, or worn-off china glass in your house and categorize them accordingly after accessing their worth. If you are a beginner, you need to pay extra attention to the materials at hand and must be well-equipped before commencing on such projects. Arrange them together as a puzzle before binding them together using strong adhesives. If a plate is damaged beyond repair, then repurpose it. These broken plates look like mosaic tiles and have many uses:

Kintsugi: Fix and repair vintage broken plate with gold using the kintsugi pottery art technique.

Outdoor decorations: Stepping stones, birdhouses, planters, and creative outdoor decorations.

Garden edging: If your plates are cracked or broken in bigger portions, they can be reused for mosaic garden edging around trees and shrubs, or for separating flower beds, lawns, and gardening the adjacent landscape.

Mosaic artwork: Mosaic artwork is unique as it uses small or broken mirrors, beads, or even dishes to create captivating patterns, pictures, and figures. One can craft a wide range of table toppers, backsplashes, stepping stones, wall decorations, and decorative items with endless possibilities with mosaic artwork using broken plates.

Jewelry: One of the finest things a person can craft, wear, and sell is jewelry from reclaimed and broken plates. This unique idea helps to protect the environment while providing excellent gifts.

Broken Plate Crafts:

1. Upcycle a broken dish by Homify. Arrange the broken pieces in their original form and apply a strong adhesive like E6000 to their edges to hold all the pieces together. Once it dries, hang it with a plate hanger.

2. Mixing plates: Create an entirely new display by using broken pieces from different plates to recreate a new one as demonstrated by marimarki. Elevate its look using the Kintsugi technique by covering the cracks with gold adhesives.

3. Make Old China Wreath with worn off or chipped plates. Find more creative and easy DIY garden ideas on a budget. Find vintage plates at your nearest crafts store and antiques shops.

4. Wind Chime from broken plates from Pinterest.

5. Easily broken plate decor by Khawla Easy DIY.

Broken China Mosaic ideas:

6. Flower Mosaic using old dishes by Instructables.

7. Mosaic butterfly craft with broken China by sweet roses mosaic.

8. Mosaic House number display by Micklems Farms Creative Workshops.

Creative broken plate art

9. Repair broken plates with Kintsugi pottery art technique that uses gold to repair ceramics.

10. Wall mirror art by Roxann Perkins Yates.

11. Mosaic Mirror Art from Pinterest.

12. Easy wall hanging from broken plate by Christina McAnally Gray who uses large broken pieces of a plate for portraying a lady “All Bottled Up.”

She completes the project by recycling multiple items including small bottles, springs and even washer. Broken vintage plates, glass tiles, and beads to portray scattered clouds in the sky.

13. Unique Broken China Mosaic by glass art and soul.

14. Mosaic Australian Bird Idea by flock loves art on precut plywood.

15. Beginner-friendly mosaic flower by Solange Piffer Mosaicos. An appealing idea of converting trash to treasure by reusing broken plates and teapots for this outstanding mosaic design.

16. DIY Mosaic plant pots by impressive mosaic.

17. Joolz mosaic art follows a similar technique with a dark base that transfigures an ordinary pot into a masterpiece.

18. Use chipped plates and dishes for fence decor. Find more Decorative privacy fence ideas.

19. Make garden flowers with old plates and bowls. Find more creative and easy DIY garden ideas on a budget.

20. Mosaic Birdbath DIY using old or broken plates for your backyard by craftionary. A large bird feeder from a thrift store and a mosaic pattern. Use frost-resistant grout to extend its life.

Mosaic Furniture Ideas:

21. Mosaic China side table DIY by sweet roses mosaic transformed an old side table into a monument treasure using old China dishes for mosaic art.

22. Turn Broken Plate into Beautiful Table top by Our Craft Mom.

If you want to reclaim an old table on a budget, then this DIY is the right one for you. Inspect a table for minor cracks and scrap off the old peeling paint. Use a fresh coat of paint on the table and apply acrylic paint adhesive on the tabletop. Start assembling the broken pieces from the center towards the ends in any pattern of your choice, grout and display.

23. China Mosaic Bookshelf from pinterest.

Updating the back panel of your old bookshelf using discarded plates can help to bring texture, color, and personality to your indoor decor.

24. DIY Mosaic dresser from Pinterest.

25. Broken China Birdhouse by Coastal Creators.

26. Garden Plates from Broken Plates by Over the Big Moon.

27. Mosaic Wall Planter by Pillar Box Blue requires a number of broken plates and cups carefully designed together to form a wall planter on a reclaimed kitchen cabinet door.

28. Garden rooster decor by rooster for your garden. Use wire cutters and hammers to cut the plates according to the pattern. The technique uses E6000 for gluing all the pieces together with an additional resin coat for extra protection and smoothness.

29. Letters from commissioned plates by kelly gardner artist.

30. Mosaic 3-tier Serving Tray from Pinterest.

Tips to remember while using broken plates as mosaic tiles and designs:

Collecting materials beforehand to avoid any disruptions while working. Reclaimed plates, adhesives, mixing cups, the base of the project (such as plywood, wooden frame, etc), all essential tools (such as glass cutters, pliers, markers, etc), and safety gear must be aligned before starting the project.
Design your selected pattern or object on paper before starting the project. It’s better to keep the color scheme of the reclaimed plates while selecting a design by selecting an appropriate theme at the beginning.
Cut off the foot of the plate (the thick ring on which a plate sits) and the adjacent areas of the plate using pliers and cutters to make any pattern of your choice.
Use safety gear while working with plates to avoid any accidents. Always wear a mask, gloves, and safety glasses to protect your skin and eyes from tiny particles that arise while cutting the plates.
Select and prepare a firm base that can hold the weight of the mosaic artwork.
Beginners can also purchase vintage china porcelain pieces to get their first project rolling in no time.

Extraordinary uses for broken plates:

31. Broken Plate Kettle from pinterest.

Picassiette Assiette Tradition originates from the French term Pique Assiette meaning “Stolen from a Plate”. Instead of using all the components, this technique features certain objects found in a design.

32. Pique Assiette Cat display by cracktpot jo.

33. Fixing broken plates with Ink Drawing:

This is by far the most unconventional method of fixing the missing pieces of a broken plate using the ink drawing technique. Rob Strati sketches whimsical illustrations that seamlessly merge with the broken ceramic plate.

34. Garden edging with broken plates:

Measure the area that requires edging and dig small trenches for broken plates. Cover the bottom of the plate with dirt to hold them steady. This unique idea by Fifth Sparrow No More is cheap, affordable, and a sustainable way to separate a patio from the surrounding landscape.

35. Flooring from old dinner plates and procleain dishes from Pinterest.

36. Broken plate backsplash by Hope Taylor‘s husband featuring a combination of broken plates and ceramic tiles.

37. Mosaic sculpture DIY toolholder by Lora Weinstock.

38. Mosaic Garden tool:

Dumblady Mosaics shares a beginner-friendly idea to revamp your garden display by reusing an old discarded showel for creating the base for a broken plate mosaic design.

39. Landscape from Broken China:

Picassiette Assiette Tradition is an excellent medium to portray historical events following a unique theme. Chroma tile by cecilia kremer shares a one-of-a-kind project to pay tribute to coal miners’ culture in southwestern Pennsylvania. Each house is entirely made from broken china plates.

40. Vintage china mosaic flower in bright blue and green shades from Etsy.

41. Contemporary display from old plates from contemporary mosaic project.

Broken Plate Jewelry:

Mastering the art of reusing broken plates is not only good for the environment but can help you to bring your entrepreneurial skills to life! Hundreds of people are reusing broken china for crafts and jewelry and making a fortune out of it. You can purchase a DIY jewelry kit to get started.

42. Cute Easter bunny Royal Doulton child’s plate necklace from etsy.