Ginger and Pickle: DIY: Three tier cake stand

My very first business venture was selling vintage tea cups and saucers, homemade cake stands made with vintage plates and tea inspired jewelry on the quayside market in Newcastle. Every Sunday I would set up on the quayside for the low price of £6 and sell my wares. It wasn't going to make me a millionaire but it was more than the extra pennies I needed to supplement a waitress job and enabled me to save to go travelling. It also fueled a burning desire to be self employed and set the dream to one day have my own vintage tea room.

Polly put the kettle on
a day in the life of polly

I don't focus as much on selling the cake stands, although a fair few go in the run up to Christmas, but I do use them to serve afternoon tea. I love peoples reactions when you present them their lunch on a beautiful, tiered, homemade, mix, matched, cake stand, it makes it that bit more special.

You will need:

Ruler or set square
Marker pen
Drill with tile drill piece
Wooden bench or block to drill on
Tea towel
Bowl of water
3 x plates, in gradient sizes, mix matched
Set of three tiered rods - ebay is a good source

1. Firstly, you will need to mark the center of the plate on the back. Use your ruler to find the middle and mark with the marker pen.

2. Next put the first plate face down on your wooden block and with the tip of the drill press down gently on the center spot, creating a little dent.

3. Slash a little water on to the plate and pressing into the dent with the drill, gently start drilling, don't put too much pressure on the drill.

4. Drill for 10 second intervals, in between, splash more water on the plate and place the tip of the drill piece into the bowl of water to cool it down. The drill piece and the plate both get quite hot and this will cause the plate to crack so you need to keep cooling them down.

5. Eventually the drill will come out the other side of the plate, turn the plate over and drill on the other side until the hole gets bigger. Keep turning the plate back and forth until the hole is big enough to fit the cake stand rods through.