DIY Bonsai Planter

My work is keeping me from my blog and I just hate this. 

I can't stay away from it and my lovely readers for long so I took out some time and created this DIY bonsai planter tutorial especially for my dear readers. 

Few months ago I tried my hands at creating bonsais. I created four bonsais jade, bougainvillaea, jasmine and ixora out of which only three survived. Ixora died because it was a wrong selection of the plant to create a bonsai. But I think three out of four was a good result for the first timer like me. I had started jade in the last week of September and just in two-three months it started looking a lot like bonsai. But its pot was quite boring so I decided to give it a makeover. After all, if your bonsai takes the shape of real bonsai its pot should look like a pretty bonsai pot too.
Tip: Jade is the simplest plant to start with if you too wish to create a bonsai. 
Gosh!! I talk a lot. Now let's start the tutorial without much ado.

For the DIY enthusiast like me acrylic colours, white M-seal(epoxy clay) and clear varnish are quite versatile art & craft supplies. You just put on your thinking cap and there are numerous things you can make using these three simple supplies. In this DIY tutorial, we are going to use the same supplies.

I drew a rough sketch of the pattern I wanted on the bonsai pot so that I can glue epoxy clay accordingly. To know how to use epoxy clay and how to make shapes using epoxy clay check out my previous post Lippan work tutorial and DIY Owl planter tutorial. These two blogs will give you a fair idea on how to work with clay. So the first three steps would be drawing a design on the pot, preparing clay and making shapes to stick on the pot. 

Here is how I made the patterns using clay and stuck the clay on bonsai pot. Good enough to go ahead and paint it. 

This time I chose distressed finish for my bonsai planter otherwise in all my previous works I have always preferred a fresh and clean look. I chose mint green for the clay patterns and painted it first. 

For the rest of the pot I chose Persian blue and painted it when mint green was dried completely. First I painted the rim of the planter. 

Then I added some more water in Persian blue color to make it bit runny and painted rest of the pot including clay patterns. See the below picture, this is how it looked after painting. 

While the color was still wet I dabbed a soft cloth gently on the clay patterns only. It revealed the mint green color and I loved the distressed look. 

Here is how the bonsai pot is looking with jade bonsai in it. Now it's time to decorate the bonsai pot with some accessories to complete the look. 

I used some pebbles, shells and tiny birds made out of shells to beautify the pot. Here is a closer look for you. Did you spot one little birdie sitting on the branch of jade bonsai. 

The bonsai planter turned out the way I had wished and it sits pretty on my coffee table now. 

Tip: Sometimes handmade stuff should be given the opportunity to beautify the place instead of fancy looking expensive stuff. 

Are you inspired to create bonsai and to make this bonsai planter, oh! please go ahead. It is so therapeutic I tell you. 

Now my dear peeps, I request you that please do not miss my next post as I will be sharing my achievements this year and my plans for the next year and I bet you will find my plans quite exciting. You all are a part of my success so I am asking you to join me in my next blog which is dedicated to you all :)

Stay tuned and keep creating!!

Want some more inspirations: Check out these lovely Home Tours