Desert Design, making art with scrap metal

Real handmade southwestern design ideas for your home or property. Lizards, kokopellies, moons, suns, road runners, steer head, yucca plants, and chili peppers are just some ideas.

Its really not tough to make your establishment, house, trailer, apartment etc. into the look you may desire. First thing you should do if you plan on making your place look southwestern or a desert type theme is to look at some places on maps like southern New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and even California you will find the idea your looking for. Making inside of your house in southwestern design is beautiful and a comforting feeling.

There are lots of stuff you can use inside or out to make a southwestern feel to it. First grab some 1/8 plain old steel plate from your nearest scrap yard this is your best bet. Also your going to need a torch cutter/plasma cutter, a small hand held grinder, some drawing chalk oh and of course some dark safety glasses and gloves. If you use a plasma cutter you wont have as much lag or burnt off metal to grind off, It makes a very nice smooth cut but you have to have a good source of electricity and air to run it. It is also much pricer to buy a plasma cutter than your ordinary acedaline torch. A setup with a torch is fairly cheap, you should be able to get a kit at your nearest welding store or even a Walmart or Sams Club, for about $50.00 or so. Then you get some acedaline and some oxygen, hook the lines up and your ready to start practicing. Dont worry it takes time to get a steady hand and be able to hold a good line or a curve. The most important part is to keep the tip of the torch about 1/4 of an inch away from the metal at all times, so practice makes perfect. Since you've got all the right supplies to make some southwestern design get some chalk and draw something on the plate. Start with something small like a moon or a lizard or even a sun. Be sure to draw the lines good enough so you can see them when you are cutting. Begin by heating the plate where your going to cut for about 15 or 20 seconds and then move into about a 1/4 inch away from the plate, and then apply the acedaline to make it cut. Go pretty slow you don't want the red hot molten (metal) to get behind the cut on you. Keep blowing it out slow and steady and don't stop, that is your best bet. When you cut the piece out, take your grinder and touch up the rough edges to your preference, some edges will be sharp and it's very hot so be careful. It is a lot easier to let the piece cool down before you get the grinder and get after it. Once thats complete grab some primer and some turqouise spray paint, or what ever color you prefer. Rustic,turqoise,red,green,darkblue, are some color choices that go with a southwestern theme. The textured rough spray paint looks really good as well. Thats what I prefer. Primer the piece really well front and back, you don't want it to rust on you. Then let it dry for about 30 minutes or so. Then get creative with your paint, do what ever you like. You can always paint over it or wire wheel it off. The lizard in the picture is white paint with a light spray of rough textured turqoise spray paint on top so mixing and matching is great as well.

Some other ideas about setting the southwestern style is to look around at some garage sales, or a thirft store, maybe an antique shop may have what your looking for. Look for items like an old wooden wheel or a wooden bench. Also you might look for some old cowboy boots, and a hat, or some old spurs a cowboy or cowgirl used at one time. An item not always easy to find, but would make an excellent accessory to your theme would be an old cow skull or cow horns.