Mexico Kitty Ceramic Pot

I am so excited to show this little fella to you, he is the first thing I made in my ceramic workshop and I'm so pleased he is finally home. He is named 'Mexico Kitty' as he was inspired by some Mexican art I saw, with the painted design. Isn't he the cutest!

He was made using the snake pot technique; i.e hand built using long snakes to form a pot. I really like the shape of him, he sort of curves in like a nice plump kitty but I think its a really aesthetic shape. I then added four legs onto the bottom. Sadly I don't think I secured them well enough, so as you can see here they exploded off on the first firing but they have been very cleverly attached back on by David when dip glazed. David also put a hole in the bottom of my pot for the water to drain out so I also made this little stand for it to catch any water that drips through. This I just made out of a flat rolled piece of clay which I made dint's in for the legs to sit in so its all nice and sturdy.

The pattern was hand painted on using some oxide and water after I added the blue slip to colour the main pot. I really like the way this looks actually, its definitely something I will try again. I like how delicate the brush strokes are on something which is otherwise quiet chunky. With the face I cut away from the clay and then painted in the gaps but as you can see the oxide has burnt away during the firing process, which is a shame but I really see all this as a bit of a learning curve, there are no errors only happy accidents!

The final shiney glaze was added by dipping him in glaze, this helped to stick his legs back on, but we would normally paint the glaze on to the pot. After firing the shrinkage of the clay caused the glaze to crack which is the effect you can see above. David suggested that we paint over the pot with a watery acrylic paint to show off the cracks it has caused. We gave it a test on the bottom of the plate and it looked really nice so I applied it to the whole pot. I think its a really interesting effect.

I hope you like Mexico Kitty :) It just goes to show just how easy it is to make something amazing. I love this pot and as I said at the beginning this is the first one I made so it just goes to show what you can achieve when you give things a try. I have put David's flyer below for anyone who is local and fancies giving ceramics a go. 

Now I need to go and get on with trying to finish some of my sewing projects! Honestly, I have a pile so high of half done makes that I really need to tackle, they are in the way if nothing else!

DIY Clay Kitty Plant Pot

Come on.. admit you don't instantly want to make one of these yourself now? I knew you would! 

I wanted to get a couple of plants for the new kitchen, and one for my new office desk, but just wasn't too inspired by the plant pots they come in, or ones you can buy. I mean why doesn't your local DIY store carry Kitty plant pots? Silly people. 

I have had an inkling to play with some air dry clay for a little while now, especially as I knew I would be without the sewing machine for a while. I got quiet a lot of the inspiration to have a go at this from our recent trip to Rhodes. All the white houses and churches amongst the green landscapes were really pretty. I then thought about the types of shapes which would lend themselves well to a plantpot, and added my own little quirky style and this is what we got. I will admit that (close up) this first attempt does look like someone gave a 5 year old a lump of clay... give it a go, see if your 5 year olds can do better then me! but I am pleased with the overall shape of it. It also looks a lot better after a layer of paint, but there are definitely some things I would do better next time. But its still really cute and so I don't really care about any of this!

How to make a clay kitty plant pot: 

1. Get some air dry clay. This will be available in your local craft stores. You can buy white clay so you don't need to give it a layer of paint, but any colour will be fine.
2. Take a lump of clay and start hollowing it out into a sort of bowl shape. You can use an old plant pot or bowl (or even a plastic pop bottle) to help get the shape you want if needed. Make sure to try and keep all sides quiet even in thickness, and no area to thin. Also make sure there are no holes... add more clay to these areas if you need. 
3. On one side pull the clay up at the top to form two pointed kitty ears. You can add an extra bit of clay to form these bits, but remember you will need to make sure they are smoothed into the base if you do it this way so they don't fall off.
4. Using a soft paintbrush and some water smooth out the lines and finger prints from the outside of your pot (the step I skipped!)
5. Leave your pot to dry - this can take anything from 24-48 hours depending on the size, but I would leave it a few days to be sure.
6. Paint your pot with some white (or any other colour) acrylic paint and leave this to dry.
7. Using a pencil first draw on your kitty face then go over this with black acrylic paint and leave to dry
8. Pot up your plant and admire your handy work.

 My advice would be to plant up some sort of cactus or other non thirsty plant as the clay will likely soak up a bit of the water. You want something which doesn't require too much watering. 

Please do send me a link to your pots, I would really really like to see these. Two of my favourite things in one... DIY and gardening <3