I wanted a wall mounted spice rack, but I wasn’t sure how to go about making the little spice jars to go in it. I considered using beads for the base and perhaps polymer clay to make the caps, but I couldn’t really find anything that matched the idea I had in my head. Most things were either too large or not the right color, texture or shape.
What I ended up using was 3/16″ diameter rigid aquarium tubing for the jars and 3/16″ diameter wooden beads for the caps.
I cut 3/8″ lengths of the tubing using a sharp X-Acto knife and a lot of patience.
I painted part of the inside with colors matching the various spices I wanted to mimic.
I didn’t seal the bottoms since the jars would be displayed either in a rack or standing upright on a countertop, and since they were merely painted, there was nothing to spill out.
I created labels in Word using clip art borders for the design. These measure just 1/4″ square but they are legible. I printed them on Avery label paper since I figured I’d get more glue on myself than on the tiny labels if I tried applying an adhesive after cutting them out.
I cut out each label along the lines and found it relatively easy to pull the backing off even though the paper was so tiny. Using the sticky label paper made it very easy to attach the nameplates to the miniature bottles. I then glued on the wooden beads to the serve as caps; I liked the existing reddish color so I decided to leave them as is. The hole in the top didn’t bother me since the jars wouldn’t normally be viewed directly from above. From the front perspective, the hole seems like a design detail.
Once the jars were made, I built a spice rack out of basswood and mini dowels, leaving it unfinished for now since I like the color. I will likely seal it but not paint it. Here you can also see the finished backsplash; I used two light coats of metallic silver paint that I wiped off before drying to create variegated shades of silver.
