Foxy green ceramic gets epoxy clean dynamic

The Scene

While out on an evening walk I cam across a house that was doing some proper spring cleaning. They had placed some once-lovely broken pottery out on the curbside.  One particular green pot had both vertical and horizontal cracks, but surprisingly no large pieces had fallen away. It took me two trips to carry two broken pots home (more on that second pot later), but oh such satisfying repairs!

Found planter with old dirt and some volunteer sprouts

The Fix

Using some epoxy that my friend already had on hand I decided to see if this pot could be repaired. First I dug out the dirt that was dried up in the pot. Then I ran water over all the cracks, from the inside and from the outside, to try to wash away as much dirt as possible. Although the cracks made it seem like the pieces should come apart, they would not, so I listed to the pot and just rinsed away what I could. Then I let the pot dry in the sunshine.

I don't have photos from the epoxy application because I had gloves on and had to work quickly. Since I could not really move the pieces of the pot that had separated, I decided to try to over-fill the cracks with epoxy to get as much coverage as possible.  

Outside of pot, with epoxy

Inside the repair

Conclusion

The (slightly messy) epoxy repair worked! The cracks were on one side of the pot, so now that the structure of the pot is stable I simply turn the cracked side to the back. Now this discarded pot has a new life as a home for some fragrant rosemary in the (slowly expanding) container garden.  So don't be afraid to repair broken pottery, a little wear and tear can tell an interesting story.  Here is the pot on its first night of its new life.

Ready for rosemary

Happy freestyling!

The chameleon of clay

This is the chameleon in all its glory.

 

Although this chameleon is made of humble clay and sits affixed to the edge of a pot
I still think its pretty rad. 

Also it was free, natch.

Now watch this awesome video containing true facts about the chameleon  and of course,
happy freestyling.

September Celebration of Succulents, continued

You might remember the fabulous wedding centerpiece I showed in the previous post, if not, here it is again.

It took a while to deconstruct this lovely arrangement, but my hope is that the extracted plants will take root in Cambridge and live happily throughout our apartment.  I didn't take any pictures of the deconstruction, but it did take long enough for someone to make cookies, someone else to make gazpacho (both from scratch), and it continued on after the lunch break. whew!

What was involved in all of this? (approximately)
1. Remove the twigs, flowers, and ivy (all the stuff that was easy to pull out)
2. Discover that some of the moss and succulents were glued together, pull them apart gently
3. Rinse out the metal tray and plastic liner, for future use
4. Delicately cut the foam adhesive away from the base of the succulents
5. Make tiny cuts at the base of the succulents, roll in rooting powder
6. Find/decide on planter pots for the re-potting process
7. Put dirt into pots, then plants into dirt (without brushing off the rooting powder)

The end result looks wonderful, I just hope they thrive!

Beauteous variety

 Can you spot the freestyle planters in the photo above? 
The adobe rectangle, the teensy pink & white bowl, and the owls!
The orange bowl and the black bowl are spare plastic cereal bowls from the apartment.

Moss, just moss

 I found the off-white ceramic bowl (above) at the DPW.  Right away I knew I wanted to start a succulents garden, I just hadn't gotten to the plant nursery- good thing I waited.  It was the perfect size for these little beauties.

Rock garden, in a groovy rectangle planter

Piling on the freestyle

Keen-eyed readers might notice that the demi-lune style table against the green wall in our living room was also a summer street find. Freestyle x2.

What a super (succulent) September this has been so far. I can't wait to see what else turns up.

Suspected Stoneware

Found: White ceramic, stoneware-feel, planter. Hallmark: that big flower delivery service, made in China.
Location: Cambridge DPW shelf
Original Condition: Slightly soiled. (pun intended!)

I love stoneware, the smooth-but-not-slick feel of it, the way it looks almost soft. I'm always happy to find these kind of pieces, and even though this one wasn't marked as such, I'm calling it stoneware.
Here is a pic after this little beauty got home, had a good scrubbing, and I repotted a trio of jades to fit inside.

This freestyle find became part of mega plant giveaway #2.  I had been growing the jade cuttings for a few months, and they were very happy in my windowsill.  Now they are very happy in their pretty planter in another Cambridge apartment. Passing on the freestyle!