I made these back in May as Mother’s Day gifts. True to form, I neglected to take any usable pictures (I did a lot of work on these while watching Dexter and just couldn’t take my eyes off of the television long enough). I passed out my Mother’s Day gifts and put this project on the back burner until I got the chance to go through all the steps again and take pictures.
These colors make me think of Rocko's Modern Life.
(Side note: the above picture was taken back in May, while we were still living in our crummy little apartment in Columbus. I know it’s only been two months, but seeing this picture now makes my stomach hurt a little.)
To make these, you’ll need:
- Plain terra cotta pots in whatever size you prefer
- Acrylic paint and paintbrushes
- Tape measure
- A calculator if, like me, you can’t do simple math in your head
Start by picking out the two colors you, or the person you’re giving the planter to, like together. For this container, I started off simple with black and white. At this point you may cover the pot in an even coat of one of your two colors. OR, if you’d prefer to have a mixture of exposed terra cotta and paint (like the turquoise and terra cotta planter above), skip this step. If you aren’t sure, you can always go back and paint the terra cotta parts if you don’t like the way the combination of terra cotta and paint looks.
mine measured about 27.25"
Measure the circumference of the planter around the widest point, then divide that number by something that will come out close to even. Mine was 27.25″, so I divided it by 6 and got something like 4.5″–rounding is key here, because paint will cover most of your mistakes and it’s way too much trouble to worry about getting everything exact. The most important thing to remember is that you have to divide by an even number, otherwise the pattern won’t turn out right. Around the widest point of your planter, make marks in intervals the length that you got when you divided. You’ll have the same number of marks as the number you divided by. Since I got 4.5″, I made a mark every 4.5 inches–six marks total.
i used my tape measure to help me draw a straight vertical line
Next, at every mark draw a straight vertical line from the top of the bottom of the planter. This part is kind of tricky because the pots get smaller as they go down, but I was able to conform a tape measure to the pot and mine seemed to turn out straight enough.
i made marks at 2", 4", 6", and 8"
Measure one of your vertical lines and then divide it by a number that makes sense. My vertical lines were 8″, so I divided by 2 and got 4. Starting at the top and going down the vertical lines, measure and mark intervals as far apart as the number you get by dividing. Again, you should have as many marks as you divided by–I ended up with 4 marks, each 2″ apart.
we had blue painters' tape left over from painting my parents' upstairs bathroom
Next, simply connect the marks you made on the vertical lines with tape. You’ll be outlining one stripe and filling in the other–it’s hard to explain, but the above picture should make it pretty clear. This blue painters’ tape worked really well, but I’ve used plain old masking tape with success too.
almost as easy as a coloring book
Just paint inside the lines; I used acrylic paint because that’s what I have on hand. Terra cotta really sucks up some paint, and while it dries amazingly fast that means it’s really hard not to get streaks. For these reasons, I imagine spraypaint would work like a dream for this project.
my sweet little catnip had really outgrown it's previous container
After taking off the tape I decided I wasn’t too crazy about the white and terra cotta, so I covered the exposed terra cotta with black acrylic paint. After letting the pot dry, I transplanted a puny catnip plant from a small container it had outgrown and am really happy with the way it turned out . I’ve found that a mother of millions looks great in these containers, too. I love the combination of bold colors like these with plants whose flowers aren’t too showy–otherwise I feel like the plant and the container are competing for attention.
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