Mini trellis planter

A few years ago I bought a lucky dip bag of SnipArt and in among all the flat patterns and feathers and such like was a kit for this little (about 3 inches wide) trellis planter. I had no idea what to do with it. I probably could have used the individual pieces as texture on a mixed media panel, but I have plenty of other bits for that, so it just ended up sitting in the box with all my other SnipArt.

I often get things and then don’t use them for ages — things that were on sale, or just caught my eye, or I saw someone using them for a neat technique that I then forgot to make a note of — but nothing stays unused forever. And so it was with this kit. I was flicking through the SnipArt, just to remind myself what was in there, and, spur of the moment, decided to put it together.

Then it sat on the side gathering dust for a few more weeks before I grabbed it, along with the Finnabair patina effect paint set and a jar of Pentart iron paste, and set about painting it.

The first job was to completely cover it with iron paste — the iron paste is a fairly thick dark grey paste with a lovely soft sparkle that, of course, doesn’t really show on the photos. The base was easy to paint. The trellis was a different matter: it seemed to go on well but then I’d look at it from a different angle and there were more bits I’d missed, though I can’t really blame the iron paste for that, there are just so many corners in trellis!

Next, I used the patina effects set on the panels. You can get some lovely effects; I don’t really have a particular method for using them other than just going back and forth between the different paints until I am happy with the results. I also dry-brushed some paints (mostly the patina set, but also a touch of violet) onto the edges of the base and across the trellis.

The last thing I did was to add some dots of glossy accents on the circles at the corners.

I have absolutely no idea what to do with it now, but it was definitely fun to make.