Yep…. I’ve been dabbling with the pot again… plant pots that is! (not pot plants!)

A little while back I’d messaged Mom that I’d picked up another load of ceramic planters from Dollarama. They carry a particular style we both love. It’s perfect for house plants, and the price is VERY reasonable (between $2.50 and $4 depending on size). And every season or so, they get new colours and patterns in.

Whenever I see new ones, I buy a few, even if I don’t have anything to put in the yet, because I always have something eventually.

Unfortunately, they only go up to a certain size (comparable to a 6″ clay pot), and Mom needed something bigger for a spider plant she had. Lucky for her, I’d also bought a couple big 8″ terra cotta pots at Canadian Tire the same night! I offered to paint one up for her and asked what she wanted on it.

“Quilts hanging on a line,” was her answer.

So I got to work.

Like the gnomes I did recently, this one was fairly detailed. It took several evenings to get it all painted, then another couple for the outlining.

As you can see, I did four different quilts hanging on a line. And all around the rim, I split up into different “fabrics”. I’m pretty pleased with it except for one thing.

For the outlining, I used Pigma brush pens by Sakura. It’s an archival quality ink (it won’t lose its colour), AND it’s supposed to be water and smudge proof. And I’ve found, as long as you let it dry, it is. But, if you look at that quilt with the hearts….. apparently not anymore. My old brush pen was a little on the large side for this level of detail, so I wanted something finer. I made sure to order more just like it, only smaller.

It was great at first, until I turned the pot and started working on the side opposite the hearts. All that smudging is from it resting in my lap while I worked on the other side. And that’s not from touching bare skin where the oils from your skin my interfere with the ink. That’s just from rubbing against my leggings.

I don’t know if they changed their ink or what, but I am not thrilled. I told Mom just to turn that side to the back, because there’s not a whole lot I can do with it now.

I’ve got another pot to paint, and have a very special design in mind for Samantha. I promised her a piece of my mini Monstera, and I thought it would be nice to deliver it in a special pot this spring. Lets hope I can get it done without too much smudgery!