D.C. Flag in Steel Ring

Dimensions: Diameter, 21.75 inches; Thickness, 1 inch, Weight, 13 pounds. This upcycled item allows you to show your pride in D.C.—no matter how outsiders shamefully and politically denigrate us—with a unique, somewhat industrial version of our popular city flag. It would look great in many rooms of a house or in an office, as well as in commercial establishments like a local bar or restaurant. Two D-rings are attached to the back, so all you need to hang it on your wall is a hammer and a couple of nails. $150. Click here to purchase.

The Story

This was the fourth ring like this I found on a nearby sidewalk—an interesting artifact. It took a lot of paint stripper and scraping to get it down to raw steel on the visible side of the final product. Then it sat for several months while I considered what to make out of it. When the design idea came to me one night like a proverbial light bulb going on, I sketched it out and started on it the next day.

I had some reclaimed pallet wood, already well sanded, in my stock that would work perfectly for the four bottom stripes, both naturally reddish and whitish in tone, though I had to split one of the white planks in half lengthwise for the thin stripe. (The relative widths of the main five stripes adhere to the official dimensions of the D.C. flag.) For the top two pieces I had to sand a wider piece of pallet wood, and fortunately the tone was close enough to the other light planks. I laid out the pallet wood under the ring, traced the perimeter, and cut those curved edges with my jigsaw. I also used that tool to cut a slightly smaller circle out of a sheet of 1/8-inch-thick underlayment, which I had bought from The Home Depot, to serve as the backing piece.

I used a custom blend of Minwax Sedona Red and Red Mahogany to stain the two red stripes. On the white pieces I used Watco Natural [clear] Danish Oil just to bring out the subtle grain. I didn’t use any varnish or polycrylic on the wood, because I wanted a natural, non-shiny finish to complement the metal. After those treatments, I glued the pallet wood to the backing piece one or two at a time. On the D.C. flag the stars are the same red as the stripes, but when I realized that the little cast iron stars I had (leftover from other projects) nicely matched the tone of the steel ring, I decided to leave them just like that. I drilled small holes and carefully hammered them into place, adding a dab of thick adhesive under each one, for extra security. I attached the steel ring to the front of the piece with three small bolts and nuts.

Related Items: Reclaimed Wood D.C .Flags; Found Metal and Reclaimed Wood Circular Wall Art #1, #2 and #3.