Up-Cycle Progress: Book Ends

We spend a lot of time reading and I’m sure everyone has that one shelf of books that is either held up by another book or a different random object. Rarely do I see a stack of books held up by the very object that is made to fulfill this purpose and provide an aesthetic – bookends. That being said, for this up-cycle project, I have decided to make book ends using the scrap metal that I have had sitting around from a previous project.

My inspiration for these bookends has come from Pinterest. A couple of the photos that have sparked my idea for this project are shown below.

So far, I have used a die grinder on the L-shaped material in order to remove the rust. Since the material has a couple holes bored into it, I’m trying to decide how to make it more aesthetically pleasing. I have come up with a variety of ideas in order to accomplish this as listed below.

1. Etch a design in double layered acrylic and attach the design to the back of the metal.
2. Use multi-colored solder to create a design on the steel.
3. Design a sticker using polyvinyl chloride and create the necessary shapes of the sticker with the sand blaster located in the Idea Forge.
4. Tack weld mechanical parts such as gears onto the L-shape in order to make the holes seem like they are purposeful.
5. Create a Papier-mâché design on the steel using the spine and pages from old books.