My first craft project for 2023 was more concreting. It had been quite a a while since I’d last made any pots.
Encouraged by the success of the periwinkle blue, I experimented with more colours of powdered fabric dye, adding peach and teal.
I made 1 wee house^^ (milk carton), 1 plinth for a candle (tea container), 2 marbelled pots (round takeaway containers) and 1 larger plain pot (fabric soaker container).
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After 3 weeks I removed everything from the moulds and … let’s call this one a learning experience!
+ Learning 1: Not all fabric dyes and concrete play well together. The peach just didn’t set at all. Possibly better to stick to things designed for the materials I’m working with!
+ Learning 2: I suspect my cement was a little too old – setting was inconsistent and a bit crumbly.
On with the reveals!
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Lesson 1
I love shape of the sandy-coloured swirl in this pot which was the peach section.
I’m not going to show what it looked like after washing/clean-up, because it was pretty unpleasant! All the sand washed away and it looked like some sort of zombie infection.
❌ Binned!
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Lesson 2
I really love the colours on this wee house. But unfortunately when cleaning it up, some small sections just crumbled and washed away. Rats!
I whipped out my kintsugi supplies and effected a repair. I’m not sure this was entirely successful, but I still love those colours!
This does give me an idea for a wee house made from white felt with french knots in various purples and blues. Maybe.
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No lessons, just a bit underwhelming
Pillar. Not super-jazzed, likely going to the way of zombie pot.
Two moderately successful efforts, but still a bit inconsistent. The pot on the left has that weird peach thing happening – but weirdly didn’t wash away.
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Do I really need more pots and wee concrete houses? I do not! But I will not let that prevent further experiments.
I have a fresh bag of cement and I’m planning to get myself a pigments sampler from etsy and have a play around with those.
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^^ of course – wee houses are mandatory