This is going to be a crafty post. As it so often happens, I was browsing YouTube videos and went down a rabbit hole of paper clay and baroque molds. I found the Prima Iron Orchid Design molds to be so beautiful and very versatile. I saw videos where they were used to embellish boxes, books, jewelry – pretty much whatever you can imagine up.
I imagined up some pots.
I've never used paper clay or the IOD molds before and there was a little bit of trial and error until I got the hang of it. There are plenty of videos out there demonstrating how to use the paper clay and molds. One thing you will want to do, if you plan on using on a curved surface, is to unmold your design while it is still pliable. You can see I taped a couple of them to the pot so I would get the proper curve and it would fit flush. The clay will want to warp as it is drying so I left it taped overnight. I then glued the design to the pot using good old tacky white glue.
I used terracotta pots that had a slightly different lip than the usual big box home improvement store offerings. I thought it gave them an older appearance. I'm going for an aged, distressed look here.
Because I wanted a bit of the terracotta to show through I painted the design to match the pot (well, as best I could). I used raw sienna acrylic paint with a bit of white to lighten it up a shade.
I then very un-artistically started layering the paint. I used white chalk paint (Annie Sloan chalk paint in Pure but any white chalk paint will do) as my base and tinted it a couple of colors to achieve a more layered, textured look. I used just a drop or two of black mixed in the white as my first layer and then went in with some tinted with a drop or two of raw umber. I finished it with untinted white. The whites are all very close in color but give a lovely subtle shading effect.
I picked up a small amount of paint on the tips of an old paint brush and just kind of bounced it on. Chalk paint dries so quickly I only had to wait a few minutes between coats. I'm planning on using these pots indoors but if I wanted to use them outdoors I would spray with a matte clear coat.
Supplies*:
- Terracotta Pot
- Prima Iron Orchid Design Vintage Art Decor Moulds
- Creative Paperclay
- Chalk Paint
- Tacky Glue
- Acrylic Paint to tint
*I purchased all supplies for this project
