#urbanjounglebloggers

DIY geometric hanging planters for air plants

 I'm a little late to the party, but this is my first URBAN JUNGLE BLOGGER post, and February's task was to create some hanging planters.

Urban Jungle Bloggers is a monthly series hosted by two bloggers: Igor(of Happy interior blog) and Judith (of Joelix). Every month they and many other bloggers from around the globe share ideas to create an urban jungle through styling ideas, DIYs, and green tips & tricks on various social media under the hashtag #urbanjounglebloggers. And each month they set bloggers, like me a different creative task to showcase how we can all live with plants and make our life's a little greener.

I've chosen to use Air plants for mine, as I have been fascinated by them for some time now! 

I decided to use some polymer clay to make some small geometric "vessels to keep mine in, and today I am sharing how I made them:

I got my air plants and the silicone glue to attach them to my hanging planters here Then I used some white ovenbake polymer clay A sharp knife Something tubular, like a candle or similar Oven Sandpaper A wooden curtain ring Some brass screw eyes and brass chain You will also need a drill with a 2 mm drill bit  and a pair of pointed pliers MAKING THE GEO-SHAPES:

-Knead your polymer clay until its soft and pliable, then roll into a ball shape

 (I varied the size and shape of the ball to get a variety of different shapes)

-Place your clay ball flat on your work surface, then press your candle (or similar) 1cm or so into the top of the ball.

-Use a sharp knife to cut the clay into geometric and angular shapes...experiment! 

I made 4 different shapes, as I had 4 air plants.

(don't worry if they are not "perfect" at this point)

-remove the candle

Place the clay-shapes on a lined baking tray, and cook in the oven at 150 degrees for 15-25 minutes...

The rule of thumb when cooking polymer clay is 15 minutes per 1 cm thickness...so just keep an eye on them: If you see the edges turning brown they are cooked!

If you are using your normal cooker for the polymer clay, like I did, it is important to cook out any fumes after, before preparing food in it again: Turn up the heat to maximum, and after 10 minutes, turn off the heat and open the oven door to ventilate the cooker. Repeat a couple of times!

Open up your windows, as the fumes can leave you with a sore throat!

-When the clay has cooled down, use some sandpaper to sharpen up the edges of the shapes (and get rid of any brown marks from cooking the clay)

-Then drill a small hole in the top (opposite the cavity created by the candle ) and insert your screw eyes!

-Use your pliers to cut the chain to length and to open up the screw eyes a bit.

-Attach the chain through the screw eyes to one of your geo-shapes, then thread it through the curtain ring, before attaching another shape on the other end of the chain.

Now it's time to attach your air plants:

-Apply the silicone glue into the cavities of your geo-shapes, then gently press the air plants in place.

The glue takes 24 hours to fully cure, so leave everything safely to the side overnight:

The next day, your air plants in their geometric hanging planters are ready to hang!

I was planning on hanging mine in my kitchen windows, but as it is very tricky to photograph against the sunlight, I've hung mine in the hallway for the purposes of taking these pictures....and I think they look so lovely, I may just keep them there!

A little note about air plants: They should be very easy to look after and only needs the occasional mist of water, as they pull all the moisture they need from the air!

I am notorious for having a black thumb, so I will keep you posted as to how they get on....but I have set myself a challenge this year to keep (and NOT kill) more house plants, as it is very beneficial for your home's (and YOUR's) health to keep plants....and it also makes your interior come alive!!

So I am planning on doing one #urbanjungleblogger post every month, where I will of course share with you all any creative ways to keep and display house plants!