Indoor Gardening: DIY Mini Drainage Dish

In my last post, I used a cute growing kit to plant a couple of Forget-Me-Not seeds. The pot included in the growing kit didn't include a drainage dish which is detrimental to a growing plant. I could have gone to Lowe's and picked up one of those mini dishes, but I thought, why not just use my awesome clay making skills and create one? AND SO I DID.

Materials:
-Molding clay (I used Sculpey)
-An oven
-Mod podge (optional)
-Paint (optional)
-Paint brush

1. Take out two large pieces of clay and roll them into a ball. They should be quarter-sized. If not, adjust the amounts! Put one ball of clay aside. With the other ball of clay, flatten it out into a circle that should be a little larger than the terra-cotta pot. Make sure it is at least 2 cm thick. 

2. Take the other ball of clay and roll it out into a tube that is long enough to wrap around the circle (the base). When you have the correct length, push down on the tube to flatten it. It should look like a flat rice noodle. 

3. Wrap the flat noodle around the base and press down to secure. I left my seams showing, but you can smooth them out. Make sure the noodle is secured to the base or when baking, it will fall apart. Once you've gotten it at a shape you like, place it in the toaster oven on high for about 5 min - 10 min. Before I place it in the oven, I like to put it on a piece of foil with the dull side facing up. The timing really just depends on the oven so make sure you watch it and peek in periodically to make sure it's not burning. 

4. As you can see, I burnt mine. But it's okay because that can be covered up with paint! The next step is optional. If you like how your drainage dish looks, then skip to step 6. 

5. I used the color "Bluebird" from my Bella Acrylics set. I decided to mirror the colors of the Forget-Me-Not's.

6. In order to keep your dish from rotting or getting yucky, I recommend glazing it. You can use any type of glaze - I know there are special ones just for clay, but I just stuck with Mod Podge with gloss!

And now you're finished! It began raining so the lighting is all off, but isn't it just adorable?! 

~Misbah