Crafts From Trash: Sun Flower Pot

Crafts From Recyclables - Celebrating The Sun (project 1 of 5)

Things to do during the Coronavirus Stay-At-Home order

Summer Solstice, or what Pagans refer to as "Midsummer" and/or "Litha," will take place on Saturday, June 20, this year. In preparation for this joyous "longest day of the year" (I mean who DOESN'T celebrate the *Sun?*) a local coven asked me to create original art for the season. They wanted me to also share whatever I made so you may also celebrate the relationship that we enjoy between Sun and Earth with crafting!

And since we're all enduring a pandemic right now, and are participating in a "stay-at-home" order, the most challenging caveat for this particular *CRAFT* assignment of mine was that "the artwork must come from supplies that everyone already has in their home." 

Realizing that we're all using bleach to sanitize our door handles these days ... I felt the first project should come from a bleach bottle. As a gardener, I'm always looking for more pots to plant seeds in too ... and since I love making practical art ... the idea of making a Sun-celebration flower pot out of an empty bleach bottle was born.

*Be certain to focus your intentions as you create your masterpiece. This is the most important aspect of doing any kind of magickal crafting.* Example: I focused on how I'd like our Sun to bless my garden and make it especially fruitful this year. While I crafted, I sent up genuine feelings of gratitude for the warmth and light that our Sun readily provides.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR MAKING A BLEACH BOTTLE FLOWER POT

1. Cut off the top *funnel* portion of the bottle and use the bottom *bowl* for this project.

Roll the edges of each point

2. Poke holes in the bottom of your pot for drainage (I used a nail but you can do it by knifepoint)

3. On the top rim of the bowl, cut out triangles as shown. (The triangles don't have to be perfect - just similar in size to symbolize the Sun's rays.


4. Roll the edges of each flower pot point around a pencil. You might have to repeat the rolling process a couple of times but amazingly, the bleach bottle will accept this shape and will hold it.

Tape a border to keep the bowl free of paint

5. Because you're going to paint your pot, and you don't want paint seeping into the soil, tape around the inside of the pot below the rim.

6. Paint away! I used acrylic paint for my base color and dabbed accents on with nail polish. You can use any kind of paint that is water-soluble. (You don't want to use washable paint and have your work ruined the first time you water your plant).

DID YOU KNOW? 

The word solstice is derived from the Latin "sol" (which means Sun). At the summer and winter solstices, the Sun stands still; meaning the seasonal movement of the Sun's path comes to a stop before reversing direction!

Definitions of Solstice from Oxford Languages