To make garden or balcony planters, you can recycle old towels
In the garden as on the balcony or even on the terrace and in the house, we often make use of pots and planters for our greenery that cannot be kept in the ground. Also, the choice of the vase or pot is sometimes fundamental in contributing to the overall aesthetics of our green corners.
In the shops and garden centers, the variety of models that one can buy is truly infinite, but what about all the shapes that we could create by sculpting them with our hands? It seems like a difficult undertaking, but in reality, it can be really simple, fast and, above all, cheap. In fact, it is sufficient just to recycle old clothes or towels - even worn out ones - with the help of a little ... cement!
The procedure is very intuitive and easy: it will be necessary to prepare the cement so that it is quite liquid. In this form, it will be able to soak into the fabrics very well when you will dip them into the basin in which you have prepared the liquid cement.
Then you just have to choose an object on which to place the fabrics so that they take the desired shape: these objects can be overturned plastic buckets, bowls, basins or even wooden logs (better if already stripped of their bark, but it is not essential). Remember that they must be objects that have a flat bottom, otherwise your vase will not rest properly on the ground.
At this point you just have to wait for the concrete to set, hardening around the cloth or towel, which will thereby take its final shape.
You should know that the final result will always have a slightly rough surface, due to the texture of the fibers of the impregnated, cement-coated fabrics. You could, if you wish, add cement to thicken and smooth the surface, and you will need to prepare cement which is a little less liquid and which can be applied easily.
Of course, you can shape the fabric by making folds in it and any other processing you can think of before it hardens too much - always adding a little cement if needed.
The results will always be unique and nice to look at.
The type of rag or towel used, more or less, affects the final result. Add to that the fact that maybe you can use white concrete, or use different finishing paints when the work is completely finished and dry.
The same process also works with openwork fabrics such as doilies...
...which will become much more than a simple, anonymous vase or pot - certainly, they are very original.
It is also always advisable to use transparent finishing products (sealants) to waterproof the inside and outside of the concrete object to make them last even longer.
Would you like to create vases or pots like these?
