In Living With Plants (Hardie Grant Books, 2017), botanical-stylist and plant expert Sophie Lee shows you simple but inspired ways to green-up your home or work-space. Starting with the basics, learn how to pick the right plant for you and your home (and specifically what room), what levels of sunlight your plant needs and the best space for your plants to thrive.
You can use a new or old terracotta plant pot for this How To, but I find that using an old one just adds to the texture and charm. Make sure that the pot is clean and unglazed or the inks will not stick. At geo-fleur we use Scola iridescent inks, but there are many different marbling inks on the market. You can also marble a matching terracotta saucer for your pot to stand in.
You Will Need:
- 3–4 different colored marbling inks
- large bucket filled with clean water
Directions:
- Drip a couple of drops of each of your chosen colors of marbling ink into the bucket of water, then use a stick to swirl the inks around.
- Hold the pot on its side and place it in the water, keeping your hand steady to avoid twisting the pot. Then, again without twisting the pot, lift it all the way out of the water. Feel free to wear rubber gloves for this part (but I prefer to get messy!).
- Repeat the process of submerging and lifting. You can change the water at this point and add different inks to get a variety of vivid colors on the pot.
- Keep dipping the pot into the water until the whole surface is covered and you are happy with the pattern – remember to not twist or dunk it completely as this will disturb the pattern.
- Stand the pot upright on some newspaper or plastic sheeting to protect the surface from the ink. Leave it to dry for at least 3 hours for the marble ink to set.
- Using a paint brush, coat the dry pot with sealant to protect the plant from any toxins in the marbling inks. Leave the sealant to dry completely (about 2 hours).
- Once the sealant is dry, pot up your favorite plant and display with pride!
Tag your finished project #LivingWithPlantsMarbledPot #LivingWithPlantsHowTo @geo_fleur @motherearthliving
For more from Living with Plants visit:
Picking the Right Plants for You and Your Home
Excerpted with permission from Living With Plantsby Sophie Lee, published by Hardie Grant Books June 2017, RRP $24.99 hardcover.
