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St. Patrick’s Day isn’t the craftiest of holidays for me. Let’s face it. How many shamrocks can you stand to make out of green construction paper? I’d much rather be cooking corned beef and drinking a tall mug of Guinness!
But since Caley (one of the editors of FaveCraft) asked me to provide a St. Patrick’s day DIY, how could I say no? Last year, I had the opportunity to actually meet Caley in the most unlikely of places. DUBLIN IRELAND! I was there for the U2 concert and she had emailed me about contributing to the website. We ended up having tea in Temple Bar and talked a lot about what influenced our crafting.
So I guess it’s fate that since we met in Ireland I’m providing a St. Patrick’s Day DIY. The only thing I could think of was a terrarium. I’d made one with a little fimo clay gnome some years back and I thought switching out the gnome for Lucky the Leprechaun would be perfect. However, living a mile high in a little town in Montana doesn’t exactly provide one with a wealth of houseplants for a terrarium. How about NO plants at all! Not this time of year. I was reduced to using some dried moss I’d stored away from a trip to Idaho and running to the grocery store for alfalfa sprouts! That’s what living in a small town does to you. You learn to improvise and use what you have!
This is a simple project and one that soon sparked my own imagination when I thought it’d also be fun to start your own indoor sprout herb garden.
Lucky is easy to create. You’ll need green orange, black, yellow, and flesh colored clay to create Lucky. And if you’re wanting to create the rainbow for the pot of gold, you’ll need white, blue and red clay. I found a little glass jar at the thrift store. If you’re actually making a terrarium you’ll need some carbon (found at pet stores) and some potting soil and a small houseplant.
Construct Lucky. I’m sure most of you can look at him and figure it out for yourself, but I’ll write the instructions anyway. Remember to wash your hands when changing to different colors of clay as they can intermingle with each other. I rolled out the hat in green clay to look like a tall cylinder. Then pinched out the bottom brim. Roll out a thin small piece of black clay . Flatten down and wrap around the top portion of the hat. Then make a yellow buckle. I formed a tiny square, flattened it and used a toothpick to shape the outline of the buckle.
Using flesh colored clay, roll out a ball that will be Lucky’s head. Make a couple of eyes with black clay and a nose from the flesh colored clay. I simply rolled out two small balls of black and one of flesh. Then attached them by pressing down with a toothpick.
Now, you’ll want to make the body. Pinch off a large portion of the green clay for Lucky’s chest and roll it into a large square shape. Pinch off four smaller pieces of green clay and mold them into two arms (sleeves) and two legs (pants). Attach them all together. Pinch off one small piece of black clay for Lucky boots. Attach this to the bottom of his pants and roll the end of a toothpick in the middle to make it look like a pair of boots. Next roll out two small pieces of flesh colored clay and roll into balls. Attach under his sleeves as his hands. The beard is made of orange clay and shaped by making a long ‘V”. Attach it to Lucky’s face, use your toothpick to make his mouth and use the ends of the toothpick by dragging it on the clay to make it add ‘hair’ texture.
Make your pot of gold by rolling out a ball of black clay and pinching the top out for the rim of the pot. Then roll out a small piece for the handle and attach. Make tiny balls of gold and put them inside the pot. Make your rainbow by rolling out different colors. Attach all together and flatten. Then attach the rainbow over the pot of gold.
There you have it! Lucky the Leprechaun Terrarium -or- Herb Garden!
Erin Go Bragh!
xo,
Maize Hutton
www.maizehutton.blogspot.com
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A terrarium could be any type of enclosed area that is used for keeping plants or small animals. Thus, a terrarium could be a glass tank, a plastic bowl or even a mug, depending on the space requirements of the plant or animal.