Craft Gossip

The largest independent craft review site since 2007

Tin Can Candle Holders from Steven Montes

by

Steven Montes the artist contacted me to let us know about his original artistic candle holders made out of tin food cans.

I previously posted about punching holes into a tin can with a hammer and nail but that looks primitive compared to Steven’s gorgeous tin can candle holders.

If you want to check out more one of a kind pieces of art made out of trash, see Steven Montes Yessy art gallery. According to the site, artists began making tin luminaries during the 1400’s in Spain. They have continued the tradition of creating tin can lanterns but now recycle them from food cans.

If you were wondering how the cuts are made, they now use a small gas torch. Shown here is a tin can vegetable luminaria. I bet the patterns that flicker from the light of the lit candle are beautiful.

Read These Next

Have you read?

Book Review: Off to the Nursery

One of the best things about the return of warmer weather is getting to plant new flowers and starting the vegetable garden if you have one. Off to the Nursery by Alice Oehr is subtitled “a celebration of gardening, plants and seasons,” and it’s also a celebration of diversity (because gardening is for everyone) and caring for the earth.

The book starts with the work of getting the garden ready for spring, pulling out the old plants and spreading compost made from kitchen scraps. They grab tomatoes and peppers, learn about zucchini and eggplant and explore the tasty world of herbs.

They also look through the seeds, succulents, berries and fruit trees, flowers and aquatic plants, talking about the benefits of different plants and how fun they are to grow. Maybe you can relate to the family buying what seems like way too many plants?

The book was originally published in Australia, so some of the flowers mentioned might not be familiar to your or your kids, but that’s kind of fun, too. You can also use this as an opportunity to talk about which plants in the book can grow where you live and that just like animals, plants have preferred habitats, too.

Illustrations are colorful and the book combines a standard font and a hand written font to make it feel more like a journal about the garden. The illustrations include fun facts and growing tips such as always planting mint in a pot or germinating seeds on a wet paper towel before planting.

If you want to introduce kids to gardening or just talk about what kind of plants can be grown at home where you live (yes to tomatoes, probably no to the kumquat tree), this cute book is a great addition to your spring reading list.

About the book: 30 pages, hardcover. Published 2025 by Scribble US. Suggested retail price $18.95.