A Powertex Easter Crocus that Blooms All Year Round

Powertex Flowers at Easter Time

One of my favourite flowers to see blooming at Easter time is the crocus.  There is only one problem.  We have a very inquisitive, and very greedy young dog called Logan.

Before I buy any flowers for our garden, I always check out whether they are safe for dogs - because Logan tends to eat anything he can get his little paws on. He's not fussy if it's an Easter egg or an Easter flower - and neither are very good for him.

Although spring crocuses (unlike autumn crocuses) are not poisonous to dogs, ingestion can cause adverse effects with digestion.  Logan has a sensitive stomach, so that is not something I want to take a risk on.

Hmmm, what could I do about that?  The answer was obvious.  Make my own, non toxic Powertex ones :)

After three weeks curing time, these Powertex flowers are weather resistant, and will stay fresh all year round.  I have some poppy ones I made a couple of years ago in November that brighten up my garden all year round. 

How To Make A Powertex Easter Crocus

 

To start off with I cut the top off of a plastic bottle (keeping the lid on) and drilled a small hole through the lid.  (I then used the bottom half of the bottle for keeping my brush water in so nothing wasted.)

I attached the part of the bottle I was using to the top of a garden cane cane, and masking taped the whole thing so that it was nice and secure.  (Top tip - an old wine bottle or lemonade bottle is perfect for holding the cane steady whilst you do this. I painted this in ivory powertex and let it dry whilst I made my petals.

I made six petal shapes using my wire, and masking taped over them all before covering with material soaked in Ivory Powertex.  (NB: if using white Powertex be sure to choose material that is also a pale colour so that it doesn't show through.)

I let these dry off until they were just tacky, and then secured them around my taped up bottle into the shape I wanted the petals to be.  Once I had them in the shape I wanted, I then added some more strips of Powertex soaked material over the insides to ensure it was all securely covered.

I was having some difficulty getting my petals to stay in the desired position, so I bound them up with cling film and left them to dry overnight.  Powertex won't stick to cling film so I knew I would be able to unwrap it safely the next day, but it held the petals close enough for them to stick securely together in the desired place.

 I used cut off cotton buds for the stamen and made sure they were well coated with the powertex to ensure they had a lot of protection from the elements.  Once dry I gave them a good covering of Powertex yellow powercolor and easy varnish.

For the leaves, I split some more cane and masking taped them into place.  Wire would be equally good for this as long as you put enough masking tape over it to make it thick enough for the leaf shape.  I then covered the whole thing with strips of material soaked in Powertex.  I wanted the leaves to be bending over slightly so bent the material to give this effect, and then screwed up some cling film right at the ends to make sure it dried in a pointy shape.

From here on in it was just a case of choosing my colours and dry brushing to my heart's content.  For this one I chose to use Lilac Powercolor at the base, and blended this in  with Secret Art Loft Interference Lilac to lighten the petals a bit at the top.   I then dry brushed over the whole thing with some Powercolor white.   For the leaves I used  Powercolor Green, Moss Green  and  Colortricx Powerpearl  White.  All of these are available from Powertex UK  

I made sure to use plenty of easy varnish as well to fully protect my crocus once it was ready to go outside.  (Powertex sculptures are weather resistant after three weeks curing time)

So this Easter I will have a very safe, but very colourful garden.  Logan as you can see is very impressed.

And very inquisitive!!

Of course you don't have to stick to crocuses. Tulips would be great as would delicate snow drops.    I'm currently eyeing up the insides of some cardboard egg cartons which bear an uncanny resemblance to daffodil trumpets - once you are hooked on upcycling with Powertex you see everything with fresh eyes. 

What Easter flower will you choose to make?

You can see more of my Powertex makes on www.artandmurals.co.ukwww.artandmurals.co.uk and www.facebook.com/artmuralsbydonnamcghie