Sailboat Decor

This project shows you how to make a sailboat decoration. The hull is made of concrete and the sails are made of soda cans. Both materials are perfect to put the sailboat decor outside, for example on the balcony.

The following materials are required to make this project:

• Wooden board with a thickness of 4mm
• Concrete and sand
• Soda cans
• Hot glue gun
• Knife
• Balloon
• Fretsaw
• Sanding block
• Printer
• Soap
• Sunflower oil
• Paint brush

The first step is to prepare the original using wood. Print out the drawing attached to this Instructable (see chapter supplies) and glue it to a wooden board with a thickness of 4mm. Cut out the forms using a fretsaw. Glue the forms together to build the initial boat hull. Sand the hull of the boat into the right shape. Remove the bottom form.

In order to get a fine surface structure and that the original can be used various times the wooden original is covered with a balloon. Glue to covered hull to a piece of scrap wood. Protect the working surface of the scrap wood with some tape and glue the boat hull on top of it. For easy removal of the mold thereafter, the boat hull is covered with soap. Evenly distribute the soap with a paint brush. Then cover the original with hot glue completely. This take quite some time. Try to prevent the inclusion of air bubbles. Let the hot glue dry completely. You can also cover the structure again with hot glue to reinforce it. After the hot glue has completely hardened we start peeling the original out of the mold. As the hot glue is quite flexible it is easily possible. However the removal of the balloon that is sticking to the mold take a little longer.

An old credit card is used to make a spacer. The spacer is put into the concrete before it has hardened. Around 24 hours after the concrete has put into the mold, the spacer is removed. The resulting slots are use to put in the soda can sails. The different spacer parts are fixed together using super glue.

Mix one part of concrete with three parts of sand and one part water in a plastic bag or a cup. The mold is carefully covered with sunflower oil in order that the concrete can be easily removed. Thereafter the concrete is poured into the mold. Cover the spacer with oil as well and add it to the top. Let harden the concrete for 24 hours. Then remove the concrete from the mold and take out the spacer. As the concrete is not completely hardened yet, one can still smoothen the surface of the concrete with sanding paper.

After recycling normally the obtained aluminum sheets from soda cans keep the round shape. This makes it cumbersome do work with. It is much easier to work with a flat sheet where you can transfer your design onto and then cut it out with scissors.

I already posted an Instructable which explains in detail how to make flattened sheets of aluminum from soda cans (see https://www.instructables.com/id/Flatten-Soda-Can).

The height of the sail is equal to 15 cm the width is 10 cm.

Finally add some hot glue to the slots and fix the sails - your sail boat decor is ready.