DIY, Pots for Plants in Cement

Hey welcome, today I will teach you step by step how to make cute pots. I hope you enjoy it. I recommend reading the tips so you don't make the same mistakes as me. Let's go :D

We need:
-White cement or normal cement

-Marble

-Decorative stone for garden, small size

-Powdered pigment, i use pastel, if you want you can use acrylic paint

-Water

-Molds, an external mold, an inside mold.

Tools:
-Container, for the mix

-Container to measure the amount

-Knife, to make dust the pastel

-Trowel to mix

-Motor Tool to make the hole

-Sandpaper

♥ Tips ♥

-You can use plastic packaging or acrylic for the molds, if it has texture that stays in the pots, it’ll give a unique touch.
-Among molds must be a 1inch to space or more depending on the size of the pots. -The white cement allow the color be more intense, to be white base the color will be first pastel color, each more you can use more intense be the color, but beware don’t put on much because quarter the mix, add little by little. -If using normal cement (gray) is preferable to paint after making the pots, it is difficult when using the color in the mix, it stays dark. -The stones fill the mix, making it pretty finished. - For getting out the bubbles in the mix it is preferable pull from down at up of mold, so don’t have air in back part of the mix.

The first step is to stay in an outdoor place, in my case I do it in the garden. After enlisting the materials, we use a container to measure the amount. For the two pots that I made, I used 2 vessels of each ingredient, the same amount for cement, marble and stones; for the color you can use any amount you like.

In the mixing container you are going to put all the dry ingredients (stones, cement, marble) and the pigment, you are going to mix it as indicated in the images, and you will see that the mixture is still white, don’t worry, the color will show up with the water.
Once you have the dry ingredients you are going to add half the amount of cement, that is, if you used a cup of marble, you are going to use one of water and mix it well, if you see that the mixture is very dry or thick add another little of water, try not to be so liquid, if it is the case add a little of all the dry ingredients in equal quantity. Your mixture should be the same consistency as peanut butter.

Having our mixture ready, get the molds ready, if you want you can apply spray oil or not, in my case I did not apply anything to the molds; Now you are going to take the outer mold and fill it with the mixture in ¾ of the container, you are going to take a stick (I used a small hammer hehe) and you are going to hit the sides to remove the remaining bubbles, now When you do this you put the inner mold carefully, and put weight on it so that the inner mold does not move, in my case I used some stones that I had left over, of other small blows to the outer mold to remove the last bubbles and let it dry. In my case I waited about two days: D
Important I didn’t make holes in the small pots, but for the big ones I put a lid on the inside of the outer mold to leave the drainage hole.

After a few days we can unmold our pots, I recommend you remove the internal mold first and then the external one. At this time they should be consistent but not as hard as concrete, so it is perfect if we have not opened a drainage hole or to correct errors such as in the mouth of our pot, please be very careful to remove your pots, I did a lot force and broke one haha, so to fix it I used a wooden glue and I put a ribbon so that the pieces would not separate. For your pieces to come out perfect, I advise you to give small taps from top to bottom so that the edges are detached or move the plastic until it is completely detached and get your pot.
As you can see, they are still fresh, if you pass a tool on its surface you can leave a mark, here we take the opportunity to make the hole, carefully we can use a sharp tool or in my case a MotorTool, try to do this using a face mask so you don’t breathe the dust that comes out.

Now your pots are ready, we are going to prepare a large bucket where they fit and you are going to leave them fully in water for a few days, preferably 2 or 3 days. After that time you will see that the water will be a little white, do not worry, it is waste that the pots take out, this step is important because it allows a better finish in our pot and that it lasts longer.
Take the pots out and let them air dry. If you want, you can use sandpaper on the rough edges that have remained or prepare them for transplanting a plant.

In the case of my largest pot, I have decided to paint it later since I prepared it with gray cement.