How To Make Cement Head Planter - Gardening Tips

Make your own head planters! That's what I'm going to tell you about today! It took me approximately 2 hours to make the first one, and about 1.5 hours to build the second one. I believe that the more you make, the simpler it will be.

Supplies

• Styrofoam head
• Knife
• Pencil
• Water
• Bucket + mixing stick
• Gloves
• Metal tube and some tape
• Plants
• Concrete Mix

Getting Your Styrofoam Skull Ready

Begin by drawing a circle around the top of your head to use as a planter. When looking at her head from the front, make sure the circle is even.

 

Then cut away the Styrofoam with a knife to make place for a plant.

Insert a tiny hallow tube into the head of your planter if you desire a drainage hole. To avoid the concrete from entering the tube as you're coating it, tape it off a little at the top. Your water will drain through the tube instead of soaking into the Styrofoam.

 

Mixing Your Concrete

Begin by mixing in the concrete with a small amount of water in your bucket. I started with 1 cup of cold water in an old bucket I got from a store a while ago. You may always add more to the mix afterwards. Before dealing with concrete, make sure you're wearing gloves. It's difficult to work with. It's ideal to use tight-fitting gloves to sculpt the face. If you can't get your hands on any suited gloves, use whatever gloves you can to get the job done as much as possible; as you get to the finer parts, such as forming the eyes and nose, you may smooth with your hands.

The consistency of your concrete should look like this once it's been mixed.

Sculpting And Forming The Basic Features Of The Face

Take some concrete chunks and start gluing them on your Styrofoam skull. Spread it out and work your way around it, keeping in mind where the eyes and nose used to be. This may be done using your hands. The thickness of your concrete coating should be around 1/2 inch all the way around. Don't sweat it if it's not perfect right now. You'll take care of it later.

After you've covered the entire head with concrete, use your hands to smooth out the face by soaking them in water. Keep it as near to its original Styrofoam form as possible. Instead, make your own face out of Styrofoam and use it as a basis for your head planter. When smoothing, don't use too much water since it will become mushy and difficult to deal with. I discovered that sculpting the basic parts of the face before delving into the details works best. Before getting into the specifics, I designed my brow arches, nose, cheeks, and eye shape.

To make her nose pop out I smoothed off a little ball of concrete on the tip of her nose with my fingertips. If necessary, add a few drops of water to mix.

 

After that, I performed the same thing with her brow arches. (The arches before they were smoothed out are shown in the photo below.)

After a little smoothing out, this is how they appear. (See image below)

 

How To Make Your Head Planter More Detailed

When it comes to details, a pencil will be your closest friend. I couldn't have done that with only my fingertips. Begin adding the eye brows with the pointed tip of your pencil after you have the face appearing something like a face. Draw them on very softly and smooth them out with your fingertips. It's possible that you'll have to smooth it out with your own hands. Glove folds will block the creation of detailed and smooth work.

Making The Nose

Then, with the eraser side of your pencil, make indents on both sides of her nose and two nostrils for her. After that, softly smooth it out with your fingertips like before.

The Eyes And Lips Are Being Shaped

I went on to the eyes when I finished shaping her nose. Add two concrete balls to her eye region and smooth them down. Don't completely flatten the eye region. You must maintain the shape of your eyes.

I used the pointed end of my pencil to draw her lid lines because I was making her eyes closed. If you're building a head planter like this, I think tight eyes are also easy to make.

After that, I put concrete beneath her nose and smoothed down the corners a little to form her lips.

I went back to the pencil for her lip line and added some concrete to the corners of her lips. She was looking a little strange at this stage! But I never gave up hope! I realized she had a little chin, so I used a lot of concrete to pull her chin out and a lot more concrete to make her cheeks wider. To complete the sculpting of her face, I sat down in a comfortable posture and continued to add, remove, and shape until I was satisfied with the result.

After I finished, this is how she looked.

 

Then, to finish, apply concrete to the inside of the planter.

If you want to do what I did and add a base. Build your foundation on top of a wrap wrap-lined level surface. It should come straight off and not get trapped once the concrete has hardened.

Optional: Add Contrast By Painting The Staning

Once my head planters were set, I decided to paint and finish them. I just brushed on black acrylic paint that had been watered down with a lot of water to outline the face features. Don't forget to rinse it with clean water afterward.

Here's a comparison of a paint-stained planter and one that isn't.

Optional: Mossy Look

So, to give my head planter a little more personality, I decided to give it a mossy effect. This approach isn't water resistant. This is just a side benefit. If you want actual moss, I've heard that moss is mixed with buttermilk and then applied. It should be able to produce actual moss.

In an old blender, I mixed some store moss to get my moss appearance. I next filtered it through a fine sifter, leaving a fine moss powder behind. After that, I used my sifter to sprinkle moss on top of the matte mod podge that I had put to the planter. The moss should easily adhere to it. That concludes our discussion. VERY EASY! DONE!

I love her features!! She came out to be stunning!That hair, too!!! This is how I wanted my hair braided!