Hypertufa and clay pot update

At the end of February I tried my hand at making hypertufa pots. Even though I’d never done it before, I was very happy with the results. The four pots I made have been drying for a month now and are noticeably lighter, both in color and in weight:

In quite a few spots the nylon fibers I had added to make the pots stronger were sticking out. That was the one thing that bothered me about my creations. Several readers suggested burning them off with a kitchen blowtorch—and that’s exactly what I did. I don’t think my crême brûlée torch had seen any outdoor action since I tried it on some pesky oxalis in December 2010!

I’d already picked out a couple of agaves to plant in my hypertufa pots: the Queen Victoria agave (Agave victoria-reginae) I bought from Greg Starr last December in a 6½ inch container…

…and the variegated foxtail agave (Agave attenuata ‘Variegata’) from the  UC Botanical Garden Landscape Cacti and Succulents Nursery in the larger 9½ inch container:

I’m very happy with how these two look. Now I need to keep my eyes open for the perfect plants to go in the rectangular 10½ x 7½ x 5½ inch containers!

At the end of January I attended a pottery workshop at the house of Donna and Keith Taylor. Time to show you the finished pieces!

Very simple pinch pot, double-glazed (blue and turquoise). It looks like a grade-school art project, LOL!

The letters are from alphabet noodles I’d pressed into the clay

The one nice thing I can say about this one is that I like the rich brown color!

My wife hates this one. I like it, maybe because it’s so ugly!

I may use it for a small vining plant, or else as as pen and pencil holder.

Creepy doll faces—I love them all! They’d make an interesting mobile.

This is one of the two pots I’m really happy with

I like how the stain came out

And this is my favorite pot

White clay, with a black stain

The inside looks like stone

These pots are quite small and I have no idea what I’ll plant in them. Maybe I’ll just keep them as is…