Air Dry Clay Wall Planter

Use Air Dry Clay to make a geometric wall planter, finish with a combination of chalk and gloss paint.

You may have noticed from some of the Creative Places posts on here that I like visiting gardens and seeing plants in nature, but here is the thing. I’m not very good at keeping house plants. Mainly because my cats like to chew ALL plants (which does neither the plants or cats any good) or I over water them. So I decided to create a planter that would be out of reach of felines as well as choosing a plant that was uninteresting to them. (I have previously tried spider plants and the dangling long leaves were too big of an attraction!) So I hopped on the succulent bandwagon and set about creating a wall planter to house them!

You will need:

–Air dry clay in white

–Rustoleum Chalky Finish Furniture Paint in Coral

–Rustoleum Painters Touch Gloss Finish in Dark Grey

–Clear spray paint / sealer

-Paintbrushes

-Rolling pin

-2 sheets of thin card

-Ruler

-Craft knife

-Pencil

-Wet and dry sandpaper, 400 grit

How to:

1.First start by creating 2 templates from the card. For template 1 (the back of our planter) draw out a rectangle 28cm x 16cm and mark the halfway points along each side. Join these points together to make a diamond shape, cut out.

2.For template 2, take the other sheet of card and draw a rectangle 20cm x 16cm ? and this time mark the halfway point along the longest edge, but only 2cm from the shortest. Join these points together to form a squashed diamond or kite like shape then cut out.

3.Take some of the air dry clay from the packet. This is a 1kg packet and I reckon I only used half. Dust a little cornflour onto your work surface and roll out to approx 5mm thick and large enough to fit template 1. Carefully cut around the template with your craft knife. Put this to one side.

4.Re roll the remaining clay into a ball, adding a little water if it has dried out and is cracking, and roll out to 5mm thik again. Cut around template 2.

5.Shape 2 will become the front piece, and we need to help it get that neat fold by creating a bevel. Score a line down the middle of shape 2, and another line approx 2mm on either side of this. Angle your craft knife so the blade is at an angle and on one of the outer score line,  cut halfway through the clay. Repeat with the other outer score line and you should be able to remove a triangular strip of clay. With the back of your craft knife , score lines on each side of the bevel.

6.Score along the longest sides of shape 2 and along half of shape 1. Grab a container of water and using a finger or brush, dampen all the scored areas. Bring the two beveled sides of Shape 2 together. I scrunched up some paper and laid the template for shape 2 on top to provide some support before bringing the two shapes together. Use a lolly stick to blend the edges.

7.Make a hole in the top ready for hanging – I used a Sharpie lid as a cutter! Leave to dry. Now I thought it would take a day or so, maybe two to dry, but mine took three days and a bit of help from a hairdryer. I would recommend placing it somewhere like an airing cupboard, that is dry and warm to speed the process up a bit!

8.Once dry, you can use some fine sandpaper to smooth the edges and remove any bumps. Warning, this bit gets dusty! Make sure to brush all the loose material and dust away. Because the clay is very porous, I sprayed the inside of the planter with a couple of coats of clear sealer.

9.Paint the lower half of the planter with chalk finish paint. You will need 2 – 3 coats, but it dries really quickly.

10.Then paint the upper section with the gloss paint. This will probably only need 2 coats.

11.Because I wasn’t sure how waterproof the inside would be even after the spray sealer, I lined the inside with a plastic food bag that I cut down to size, before adding a soil and grit mix and planting my succulent.

Despite this taking WAY longer than I expected to dry, I am so pleased with the result! Here’s hoping I can keep the plant alive!

If you have a go at making your own air dry clay planter or have any questions feel free to comment below or message me on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook! Happy Making!