Since I finally finished planting flowers, shrubs and a tree in our front yard a week or two ago, I have been looking for a way to keep the hose from crushing the flowers when I pull it from the side yard to the front. Internet research led me to learn the proper terminology-- in the parlance of gardeners, such a device is called a hose guide. Who knew?
Anyway, at a craft show recently I saw a variation on the decorative (read: non-working) water spigot shown above and below.
I thought it was kind of clever; a little cheesy, maybe, but I liked the concept. Not enough to pay $30 for it, but enough to stop by my local hardware store this morning on my way back from the dentist (yes, the root canal saga continues) and buy a spigot and an elbow joint. I already had a piece of galvanized steel with a threaded lip and a chandelier crystal, so I just bought the spigot ($5.50) and the elbow joint ($1.79) to fit my existing materials. If you wanted to make something like this entirely from scratch, you could definitely buy a pipe at the store as well. The three pieces just screw together, and here's a nifty tip for adding the crystal: take a piece of copper wire (fairly thick gauge), add the crystal to one end, open the spigot as if you were turning it on, insert the other end of the copper wire in as far as you can, and close the spigot. The closed spigot will hold the wire in place.
I got the crystal a few years ago from a lighting store on San Pablo Avenue in El Cerrito, California. I was making a necklace at the time and wound up using a dark crystal instead (see below), but in true crafter/hoarder form, I kept the clear one for eventual use. I just walked into the store and asked them if they had any loose crystals for sale-- I'm sure you could do that at any lighting store. You can also find millions of them on eBay. Alternately, you could wait to see if the Garage Sale Deities smile upon you... this is just the sort of thing you can score at a non-baby stuff garage sale!
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