Mandrake Pot

Another quick(ish) craft at the Little Tomato Casa... a Mandrake pot! For a quick rundown of how the mandrake was made, instructions are below.

Materials:

Terra Cotta Pot

Mod Podge & print out of the Mandrake label (found online)

Craft Soil (found mine on clearance for a couple of dollars at a local craft store). HERE on Amazon.

Clear pot drainage tray - size to fit inside the lip of your pot.

Spanish moss or similar (if desired)

Air dry clay

Glue gun & glue sticks

Paint - browns

Fake floral leaves 

A couple of random black beads

Instructions:

Most of these materials were already on hand; I purchased a pot, drainage tray, the leaves for it's head, and the craft soil for this project. 

First, I sculpted the clay into the general mandrake shape. I added a couple of random black beads I had on hand for the eyes. This gave the eyes a more reflective quality. The clay was shaped directly on the drainage tray. 

I only sculpted up to the waist, as I didn't want the mandrake to be removable in actual soil... after a mishap where my tiny mandrake was knocked over and the 'coffee bean soil' was littered all over the floor, I decided that the novelty of pulling it out was not worth the mess.

Once dry, I hot glued the leaves to it's head. I did a little bit of shaping so the leaves flared out more naturally.

After the leaves were firmly attached, I began to hot glue layers of 'folds' and 'roots' to the mandrake body. As soon as the glue had cooled, I began layering brown paint onto the mandrake body. This was done in a few layers of brown colors to give highlights and depth of color. 

Once the paint was dry, I used the craft soil to fill the depth of the tray. This soil hardens to a paste, so it cannot be shifted and spray soil all over the floor. I added a top layer of clear glue as well to REALLY harden the soil.

The clear lip of the drainage tray still peeked out a bit from the rim of the pot, so I grabbed some moss that I had left over from a floral project and did a really light layer of moss on top of the soil to conceal the plastic rim that peeked out from the pot. 

A quick Mod Podge layer to glue down the Mandrake label, and the pot was done! 

Overall, this project took about a week. The first day was an hour of sculpting, the rest was just a few minutes of 'layer and paint' a day with dry time between.