Playing with Plaster

I've been wanting to go to one of those pottery places and do up some fun coloured pots for a while now, when it occurred to me: why don't you try making your own? I guess that's just ingrained in me at this point, why go pay to do something when you can make a mess for next to nothing in your own home LOL. So I went and picked up a bag of plaster for a few bucks ( I think this bag was about $8 after my 40% off coupon) to see if I couldn't find a way to make a few.

With a little imagination it's actually really easy! I rounded up a bunch of containers from the recycle bin to use as our molds (big yogurt containers and plastic party cups were my favourite) and a few more smaller containers to form the hollow centre.

I started by picking a handful of colours to use as my colour palette and a few tupperware containers to mix the plaster in.

Following the water to plaster ratio on the box I mixed up small batches for each pot and then added a small amount of acrylic paint to add some colour. Some I stirred the colour in completely, others I thought would look neat with a swirl effect so I left the colour not fully mixed.

I poured the colored mix into the different containers and then set my form in the middle while it set. I found it was best to remove the middle form as soon as it was slightly set, but still wet and then left the rest of it to dry for another hour. It seemed to dry much faster when the centre could breath, and it was easier to remove that piece early on. I did take the step of wrapping the centre hollow in plastic wrap in case it was hard to remove, but I think it was unnecessary and definitely not as attractive as the few I didn't do it on.

All hardened up and removed from their containers (some popped right out, and some had to have the container gently cut off) they look like this.

The nice thing about plaster is that it's so easy to work with, so at this stage I took a craft knife and cut down the rough edges on the tops. This sounds hard but it literally just shaves away like soap. Then I gently sanded the tops with a 320 grit sandpaper to smooth it out evenly as possible to get these:

Not perfect, but I kind of adore their quirky colours, shapes and imperfections!

I may fill them up with a few succulents some day, but for now I am loving the playful, artsy vibe they bring on their own.