Clay & Leather Macrame Hanging Planter :: Monthly DIY Challenge

Date
May, 11, 2016

Welcome back to another Monthly DIY Challenge! This month our product was Air Dry Clay which I was super excited about because I’ve never worked with it before. Things started out a little rough and my first project idea was a total fail. Then I got the stomach bug and had no motivation to do anything. But luckily I was able to think up a new plan to create some clay & leather macrame hanging planters which I totally love.

The Monthly DIY Challenge

CLAY & LEATHER MACRAME HANGING PLANTER

Clay and Leather Macrame Planter

SUPPLIES


:: air dry clay
:: string
:: leather

There are a few different brands of air dry clay you can buy, but I went with THIS ONE that I found at Wal-Mart. If you’ve never worked with it before, a lot of them come as kind of a tan color and dry a little lighter. If you want something more white, then I definitely recommend this brand. It’s white from the start and stays white.

DIY Air Dry Clay planter

Start by grabbing a big chunk off and rolling it out to flatten it. A rolling pin is recommended, but I used a bottle of spray sun screen 😉

DIY Clay Plant Pot for Macrame Plant hanger

Next, use a ruler and some sort of sharp object (I used a pizza cutter) to trim off one side so it’s straight.

Air Dry Clay planter DIY

You can use anything as your planter, but I ended up using a tin that held hot chocolate. Lots of weird objects being used in this project ha. Wrap your clay around your can with the straight edge at the bottom, then fold the access at the top in the inside. Let your clay dry before moving on. This takes about 24 hours.

Molding Clay around Can for Plant Pot

As you can see, you can see the metal at the bottom, and there are a few dirty spots on my clay because I wasn’t careful about where I was rolling it out. To solve this, I just gave it a light coat of spray paint to even it out and cover up the bottom.

I wanted to add something extra to jazz these up a bit so I grabbed some scrap leather I had laying around and cut off a strip to cover about half the can. Using a dull pencil, I created a fun little mudcloth inspired design on it.

Leather Strip for Clay Plany Pot

I attached it to my can using some super glue. Part 1 complete!

Leather and Clay Plant Pot

Now for the second part of this project…macrame! It’s been everywhere lately and I’ve always loved it but never got around to trying it myself. It’s super easy though!

Step 1 ::

Cut 16 pieces of string about 2-3 feet long (I cut 16 because my string was thin and I wanted to double up but you could just use 8)

Step 2 ::

Tie all the string together with one big knot at the bottom, leaving a few inches dangling

Step 3 ::

Separate your string into 4 even groups

Step 4 ::

Tie a knot an inch or so up from the big knot, on each set of strings you just made

Step 5 ::

Make 4 new sets of string by combining two strings from each group next to each other

Step 6 :: 

Make another knot a couple inches up on each new group so you have 3 tiers of knots

DIY Macrame Plant Hanger

Plop your little planter in there and you’re done! You can adjust how long you want it to hang down, and then just tie any sort of knot at the top. This is what I did:

Knotted Macrame Plant Hanger

Now that I realize how easy macrame is I’ve got the itch to macrame everything 😉

Clay and Leather DIY Hanging Plant Pot

Macrame Plant Hanger

DIY Clay and Leather Plant Pot with Macrame Hanger

I’m actually really glad my first idea was a flop because I love this little guy! I’m making another one and they’re gonna go in a little sitting nook in our master bedroom that I’m currently working on. Can’t wait to share more soon!

[please note affiliate links are included for your convenience. you can read my full disclosure policy here]

And don’t forget to visit all the other projects from my crafty friends 🙂

Clay and Leather Macrame Hanging Planter

brepurposed

14 Comments

  1. Reply

    Emily @ Table & Hearth

    May 20, 2016

    Dude, your clay looks MUCH better than the stuff I’ve used!! And I totally thought you had the clay on top of a wooden bowl, I didn’t even realize it was leather, ha! I love it and it is very Bre 🙂

  2. Reply

    Erica @ Dwell Beautiful

    May 11, 2016

    Daaaannnggg girl – your clay turned out so perfect and smooth! I just love this little planter – it looks like you could get it from a high end store! Love. Love. Love.

    • Reply

      brepurposed

      May 13, 2016

      It must have been the sun screen bottle I used to roll it out 😉 ha. Thank you so much, Erica!!

  3. Reply

    Nicole B.

    May 11, 2016

    Bre, I’m sorry your first project was a fail but THIS is AMAZING!!! I absolutely love how it turned out! So cute!

    • Reply

      brepurposed

      May 13, 2016

      Thank you Nicole! I’m pretty in love too and actually just made a second one!

  4. Reply

    Bre @ Average But Inspired

    May 11, 2016

    Whoa – this turned out awesome! The leather adds so much to the planter. I love what you did with it!

    • Reply

      brepurposed

      May 13, 2016

      Thanks, Bre!!

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Hi, I’m Bre! Follow along as we renovate our current home and share modern DIY ideas.
 

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