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msbeaniac

Clay Pot People

msbeaniac
15 years ago

Hi...I'm new but hooked to this forum!! Gotta have a bottle tree...saw one in Waco TX and fell in love!! I just bought a book at the used book store and it had clay pot ideas and I ran across the PEOPLE!!!! Gotta have them to...I'm thinking I want to do one to look like hubby in his coveralls. I'd like him to stand but I can find anything except a small 'person' standing and connected to a small saucer. Do you prop them up? I have a lot of wind so I'd like him to be pretty secure.

thanks in advance

Comments (19)

  • msmitoagain
    15 years ago

    msbeaniac - this picture shows a clay pot girl, dog and caterpiller that I did.

    {{gwi:193535}}

    This picture is a scarecrow for our garden chasing a topiary rabbit. He is wearing overalls, but they have fallen apart so it's hard to tell that's what he has on.

    {{gwi:193536}}

    The scarecrow has a 4x4 buried in the ground to support the body. A board was named to another 4x4 that is the leg at the angle to keep it in place.

    You could do something similar to this, since you are going to be having your clay person wear overalls.

    One thing I found with the porch girl and critters is that I bought treaded rods to help hold the body's stiff and to keep them in place. I used washers next to the pot so that the rod would stay in place and then secured nuts tightly to keep everything where I wanted it.

    I drilled holes in the pots and ran rope thru to hang the legs and arms from on the girl.

    Hope this helps.

    Here is a link that might be useful: MY BLOG

  • msmitoagain
    15 years ago

    Typo - that was suppose to be a board was nailed

    sorry,
    Ramona

    Here is a link that might be useful: MY BLOG

  • concretenprimroses
    15 years ago

    Ramona, what fun clay sculptures. Love the bottles too.
    kathy

  • msbeaniac
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Those are soooo cool!!! Can't wait until this weekend. Thanks for info. I think I'm going to paint the pots denim and add details for the overalls rather than put clothes on. Perhaps by extending the threaded rod, I could then jam it into the ground a foot or so??? or did you screw the rod into the wood base? Wasn't sure if you nailed the pants on AND screwed the rod in.

    I love those bottles too...and guess I'll tick my hubby off and put some bottles into a bucket and maybe prompt him to stop putting off building me a "tree". LOL

  • tennesseetrash
    15 years ago

    Welcome MsBeaniac! I want a bottle tree too, have quite a few bottles saved, maybe in spring I'll get a chance to play outside some again.

    Aren't MsMito's clay figures cute as can be!? The catapillar and dog are totally new to me, and I'm gonna have to try one myself. Been saving clay pots when I find them cheap at yard sales. ~tenderlee

  • msmitoagain
    15 years ago

    msbeaniac - on the scarecrow, a bucket was just nailed on the post that is making up the body. We dressed him before burying the leg (4x4) into the ground. Clothes rotted away after a couple of years.

    Painting would be a good idea.

    But, on the clay pot girl and critters I used threaded rods to hold the pots together for the bodies on the big pots. On the feet for the dog and caterpillar I used long screws, washers and nuts to hold them tight to the body.

    Maybe your dear husband won't be too mad. Mine loves yard art and garden junk. I'm lucky. He helps will all the stuff I can't do.

    Ramona

    Here is a link that might be useful: MY BLOG

  • Linda Wayman
    15 years ago

    Hello everyone. I'm coming out of lurking mode here to post this.
    Here's an old one I made about 11 or 12 years ago.
    I took him apart after he sat there for a couple of years because a good friend wanted one. When her birthday was near I still didn't have all the pots I needed so I used some from this guy's leg to make hers.
    We have since moved. I wanted to make another one this year, but didn't get it done. The pots are on the back porch now waiting for me to get out there and get busy, but since winter's almost here I've decided to wait til next spring.

    I do want to add that Terry Cotter, the pot man I made looked better when the flowerbed was fuller. The pictures were made the first year we lived in that house and everything was new and sparse.

    {{gwi:193537}}

    {{gwi:193539}}

  • kyponder
    15 years ago

    I built mine about 3 years ago using REAL clay pots and wire. He is sitting in a brown metal chair. He was a bit difficult to build since the clay pots get so heavy and awkward to handle. He would require way to much effort to move so I just put a Santa hat on him for the holidays and he sits here year round!

    He gets a lot of attention! LOL
    {{gwi:193541}}

  • Linda Wayman
    15 years ago

    I like yours kyponder. I looked in thrift shops this year for an old metal chair for mine because you are right about them being heavy.
    I wish I had taken a photo of mine after I had the flowerbed filled up, but I was working so much overtime at back then that it pretty much consumed my life. They do look better surrounded by greenery and flowers. The place I'm going to put mine next summer is already established with perennials. :)
    Linda

  • gramadelie
    15 years ago

    Here is a clay pot man my DIL made for my birthday last year. Hope this works as this is my first attempt at posting a picture

    [IMG]http://i33.tinypic.com/wvebg8.jpg[/IMG]

  • msbeaniac
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Finally finished! Since my first post I've been in the hospital twice, 8 days and 4 days. Gotta put a face on him/her and find a BIG fern for his head. I stuck this plant in just to see what it would look like.

    Here is a link that might be useful: my pot person

  • smickerdoodle
    15 years ago

    You did a great job. I think it is wonderful. I like the magic tree too.

  • sunnyca_gw
    15 years ago

    Enjoyed looking at all the potpeople!! Are they related???LOL Anyway msbeaniac yours came out very nice!! Take it easy & stay well!! The fern makes a great head of hair!!! Jan

  • msbeaniac
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Thanks...I love him! Sure wish he had cowboy boots on. I had a pair of size 12 in my hand at a yard sale and a lady asked me if I was going to buy them and was sooo disappointed because she said her son had a huge foot and they would be perfect....so I got a pair of shoes instead...anyone that needed a pair of boots that bad really needed them more than my pot person...none of the pics are related...just examples people showed me for inspiration. I had a devil of a time...those pots are heavy!!! and verrry ornery when trying to arrange them. Next time I will find a spot for him/her to sit on b4 I make him so I don't have to keep adding pots LOL...hubby got tired of me telling him I had to get just 2 more pots and then another 2 etc.

  • Linda Wayman
    15 years ago

    Hello everyone. I popped back in here this morning to see how many others have shown their potmen. I love the different looks, but kyponder's is still my favorite. It looks more like the first one I ever saw in a Southern Living Magazine years ago which was was my inspiration. I like her's better than I like my own. I've saved her picture for something to refer to next spring.

    I still have my pots on the back porch waiting for next spring, because like msbeaniac, I'm going to build mine in the flowerbed instead of trying to move it after it is put together. When I built my first one I assembled the legs and arms in the living room and waitied til I had the torso in the flowerbed before attaching them, then I glued the top and bottom of the torso together. I stuck a piece of rebar through the hole in the top of the torso and then put it through the hole in the head to hold the head on. I'm interested in learning how some of you attached the heads to your pot people.

    Gramadelie has a link to her pot person in her post and it didn't come through as a link. I hope it's okay to post it here to make it easier for others to see her cute potman.
    Linda

    Here is a link that might be useful: Gramadelie's pot man

  • luna_llena_feliz
    15 years ago

    The clay pot people are all very cool! I have no idea whose pot person this is ... it is someone here on the forum but it has been my favorite one I have seen so far. Purplemoon put it in the Inspiration Album.

    {{gwi:193543}}

  • socalliegal
    13 years ago

    BUMPING to the top...since someone was asking about what to do with pots...they can make smaller or large versions of all here...gotta make a wiener dog out of pots one day...grrrrr woof!

  • maureen0000530
    7 years ago

    I want to make a hulk pot person,already have face done. How would I do the body any suggestions?

  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    7 years ago

    Where can you look for quality clay pots for the least cost?

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