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DIY HEAD PLANTERS  FROM CONCRETE

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What You'll Need

– Styrofoam head  – knife – pencil – water – bucket + mixing stick – gloves – metal tube and some tape – a plant or two – Shapecrete Concrete Mix

Step 1

To make your head planter start by marking a circle around the top of the head. Make sure the circle looks even when looking at her head from the front.

Step 2

Then use a knife to cut away the Styrofoam to make room for a plant.

Step 3

If you want your planter to have a drainage hole insert a small hallow tube into the head. Tape it off a bit at the top to keep the concrete from entering the tube when you’ll be coating it.  The tube will help your water drain without soaking into the Styrofoam.

Step 4

Next start by adding a little bit of water to your bucket and mix in the concrete. I used an old bucket that I got a while back from the $1 store and started with 1 cup of cold water. You can always mix more later.

Step 5

Make sure and wear gloves before working with concrete. It’s rough on the hands. To sculpt the face it’s best to have tight fitting gloves. If can’t get a hold of some fitted gloves use whichever gloves you can get as much as possible and once you get to the finer details like making the eyes and nose you can use bare hands for smoothing.

Step 6

Here’s what the consistency of your concrete should look like once mixed.

Step 7

Okay now take chunks of concrete and start adding them to your Styrofoam head. Spread it out working your way all the way around keeping in mind where the eyes and nose originally were. Use your hands to do this. Your concrete coating should be about 1/2 inches in thickness all the way around.  Don’t worry about it being perfect right now. You’ll be fixing that later.

Step 8

Once you’ve cover the whole head in concrete use your hands and dip them in water before smoothing out the face.

Step 9

To bring out her nose I added a small ball of concrete to the tip of her nose and smoothed it out with my fingers. Use a few drops of water to blend if needed.

Step 10

Then I did the same with her eyebrow arches. (photo below is showing the arches before they were smoothed out.)

Step 11

Here’s how they look after a little bit of smoothing out.

Step 12

A pencil will be your best friend as far as details go. I could not do this with just my fingers alone.  Once you have the face looking somewhat familiar to a face start by adding the eye brows using the sharp tip of your pencil.  Very lightly draw them on and smooth it out with your fingers. You might need to use bare hands to smooth it out.  Any folds in gloves will be in the way of creating detailed and smooth work.

Step 13

Then use the eraser side of your pencil and add indents to both sides of her nose as well as creating two nostrils for her.  Following that as before use your fingers and lightly smooth it out.

Step 14

Once I was done shaping here nose I moved onto the eyes.  Add two balls of concrete to her eye area and smooth them out a bit. Don’t flatten the eye area all the way. You need to keep the eye shape there.

Step 15

Since I was making her eyes closed I used the sharp end of my pencil to create her lid lines. I also think close eyes are easier to make if your making a head planter like this.

Step 16

Next to make her lips I added concrete under her nose and smoothed out the edges a bit.

Step 17

I used the pencil again to create her lip line and added a bit of concrete to the edges of her lips.

Step 18

Here’s what she looked like once I was done.

Step 19

Then to finish it, coat the inside of the planter with concrete.

Step 20

If you want to add a base like I did. Line a flat surface with saran wrap and and build your base on it. Once the concrete sets, it should come right off and not get stuck.

Step 21

OPTIONAL : PAINT STAINING FOR CONTRAST! I decided to paint stain my head planters once they were set. To do this I simply watered down black acrylic paint with a lot of water and brushed it on outlining the facial features.  Don’t forget to blend it out with clean water.

Step 22

Here’s the paint stained planter vs one that’s not.

Step 23

Okay so to add more character I decided to give my head planter a mossy look.  This method is not waterproof. This is only an effect. If you want real moss I’ve heard people blend moss with buttermilk and apply it. It should grow real moss.

Here’s how they look outside. My awesome neighbor let me use her beautiful yard for the photo shoot! She’s so sweet! Isn’t her yard amazing!

Tilted Brush Stroke

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LILY ARDOR

A DIY BLOG, SHARING STORIES OF DESIGN BY LILY ARDOR