Pots, Sponge & Me

My latest creations with terra cotta pots.









I think the poor pots don't what hit em! :) They are 4 inch pots purchased at Wal-mart for about 85 or so cents apiece. The paint is all acrylic by Folk Art.

The pot on the left is Black, Metallic Antique Gold and Metallic Blue Sapphire. The Pepto Bismol on the right: Black, Metallic Champagne (which dried to a silver shade), Shiny Sugar Plum, and Baby Pink.

The natural sea sponge used to paint the terra cotta pots, was a small piece cut from the bigger sponge, purchased a few days ago. After further review, sea sponges. aka called "painter's sponges", can be had at Michael's or Hobby Lobby for about half the price. I liked Hobby Lobby's sponge selection better. I didn't realize it tho, until tonight. The closest big box craft store is 10 miles away from where I live. I pass two Home Depots and a Lowe's on my 15 mins drive from work. I paid extra for the natural sea sponge convenience. S'OK--I bought a small "sea wool sponge" at Hobby Lobby tonight. I have no idea if "sea wool" makes a difference in anything.

Stay tuned. tyle="color:

Terra Cotta Pot Perfect

..and tryin' to get there! I mentioned my first order of painted terra cotta pots need to be done by Saturday. 20 total. The rims will be one of the 5 colors I've selected, while below the rim will be white. After the I let the pots dry from two coats of sealant, I started to paint with the white:below the rim.

When I went to Michael's on Sunday, the white paint I wanted, Folk Art Shiny Wicker White, they were out of. So I bought Apple Barrel White. OK. I found out acrylic paints aren't all the same. After I painted the first pot, I wasn't feeling it. I didn't like how it looked at all.

I actually painted over it with Folk Art Vintage White, which was a little too yellow. It was still 103 degrees out and I did NOT feel like running to the store again. Plus, I didn't want to wait until today to paint them. So I gave the Apple Barrel another try.

Acrylic paint dries fast. That's what saved Apple Barrel. The couple pots I tried, dried very nice. Liked the look and the color, which was similar to the Wicker White. I do think I used more paint than if I'd used Folk Art. I'll still need to do more research on that.

Anyway, all 20 terra cotta pots, below the rim are painted. Wednesday will conclude with painting the rims and being half way done--kinda like being the in the hump on hump day. I will use the colors: magenta, lime green, yellow, blue, and purple. Those shades all play a part in the writers' workshop flyer.

So terra cotta perfect? Tryin' .....
Stay tuned!

Terra Cotta Tune Up

I volunteer for a chum's writers' conference and we had our last meeting before the conference (which is the 13th). I'd made mention to my chum how I do pots and would she be interested to use them in some kind of way. She liked the idea and said she would send me her favorite quote. We would just go from there...

Above is the before and after terra cotta pot. I do usually treat the inside of my pots with Thompson's Sealant. This time tho, since the pot was just for demonstration, I didn't. What I did use:

4 inch terra cotta pot
White Tissue Paper (99 cents from Dollar General) for quote
Folk Art Perfect Purple Acrylic Paint
Folk Art Wicker White Acrylic Paint
Delta Ceramcoat Sparkle Glaze
Mod Podge SPARKLE (I am LOVIN' this stuff! Me. Glue. Who knew?)

My chum liked the pot so much, she wants 20 of them--in different colors! She asked, "Can you do 20 by next week?" Of course, I can I told her, wondering all the while how I would stagger the entire process. By next Saturday, I will have 20 pots, in four different colors.

Can't wait to see how the pots turn out...
God IS so good.
Stay tuned.

Terra Cotta Three

First off, these are NOT the pots I moaned and groaned about in prior posts.

Nope.

These three pots were made as the Dallas Mavs

went up 3 games to 2 over Miami Heat last night. I made them for three colleagues who left the department today. They like to use highlighters and such. I thought they would a place to put those tools in. In fact, if my now ex-teammates wanted to plant a non-edible plant in it--they could.

Mod Podge'd this paper I liked because they were all stars in my book. One said she felt special, because I even thought to give her something. The rims were their favorite colors a shimmer of glitter on each one. All paint, including the glimmer paint, was Folk Art. The kitty paw prints--well, need a bit more work and more my patience. I used a rubber stamp with a Color Box pigment stamp pad in Frost White. I applied it when the rim paint was dry. Yet I didn't wait long enough for the ink to dry--so it smeared some. The teammates didn't seem to mind.

I still saw work needed to be done, while another teammate asked, "Where's mine?"

This teammate did not like me while we went thru training class a year ago. In fact, I had no qualms if I got her mad enough, my tires would be sliced and diced. That is, if she let me live long enough to get to the car. Since then, we've bonded as much can be. A month or so ago, she saw cat purse at a garage sale and got it for me. Total shock on my part. Everytime I get a compliment on it, I tell her. Rough stones can become precious gems.

I didn't expect anybody else to have interest in the pots. I wasn't that sure the teammates leaving would have any interest. Remember the pot I made for a lady retiring a few weeks ago? It was ugly! I realize I made it for me instead of for her.

These three terra cotta pots showed me not every piece made has to be completely about a cat. I put the paw prints on the the pot so my teammates always remember who gave it to them. The pot itself was the star, not the prints. It was for them.

Lesson learned.