DIY pot plants: my first attempt at pottery

 You might remember a little while back that I did a post on wanting to give our bedroom a makeover.  The main challenge I wanted to set for myself though is that everything I used had to be either handmade, vintage/ second hand or at least eco friendly.  I'm slowly but surely getting on with the job and have this week finally finished the ceramic plant pots to go along the back window sill.  Despite my mum being a potter, this is the first proper thing I have ever really attempted.  Turns out the whole process was a lot of fun!

Rather than use a wheel, I made templates instead and then carefully moulded the individual pieces together.  There is a fair bit of patience involved (something I am trying to get better at!) but it's definitely worth doing properly.

After I had assembled the pots, matching trays and little feet on the bottom everything had to dry for a couple of days.  Then it went into a bisk firing (in an electric kiln) in order to turn it into hard ceramic.  Several days later I found a sunny spot outside and got started on the real fun bit, the glazing!  Let me tell you, I can get a little messy and by the time the pots were finished I ended up being covered in more glaze than they were!

The next day everything was carefully loaded into the gas kiln where it was slowly heated up 1300 degrees in order for the glaze to do its thing. Oh and of course a small vase of flowers was put on top as a little offering to the pottery gods ;).

It is very important to wait until the kiln has cooled almost right down before opening the door because otherwise everything will just explode and crack.  The wait though is agonising because you are so desperate to see what everything has turned out like.

While I waited, I headed to the local garden store to pick out some little pot plants.  I did a bit of research and found out that ferns and spider plants are particularly good air purifiers so would be perfect for the bedroom.

I must say that this little project turned out much better than I thought it would.  The colour of the pots ended up completely different to how I planned, but I guess that's have the fun of pottery.  You never quite know how things are going to come out of the kiln.
Oh and I'll do a little before and after bedroom post soon.
xx
P.S Sorry these photos were taken on two different camera's so they look a little different.