Milliputian Pots : Courtyard Garden

#courtyardgarden #gardenpotrepairs #gardening #milliput @BarryLillie1 @Mishaherwin @Corinneleith @journeymouse @JillsBookCafe @rasumova

Having been assured by a pottery teacher years ago that outdoor ceramics cannot be repaired? 

VOILA! Milliput epoxy putty!

Where has this stuff been all my life?

Milliput  comes in various colours and I chose terracotta for obvious reasons. It operates in much the same way as epoxy resin glues in that you need to mix the two components – kneading for min 5 minutes according to the instructions. (Rather than mixing two resins with a stick 🙂 )  You then apply it to the repair – using water to aid adhesion where needed and prevent it where it isn’t (like your fingers – because it really does set like concrete!) 

Once set the repair can be filed/sanded down if required. I mended 3 items in a very short space of time.

1/ Terraccotta Planter

This was the pot that was very neatly split in half by frost some time ago and had languished at the back of the shed while I decided to do with it.

Having stuck the two halves together with Araldite epoxy resin glue, and held it together with duct tape while it set, I had a pot that was restored to one piece but with crevasses that could easily be infiltrated by ice and be split asunder once again should we get another cold winter – which seems more than likely. 

The finished repair is now set and as weather proof as I can make it. I didn’t sand it down. Somehow the obvious repair is oddly appealing so I didn’t see the need for all that effort.  This pic was taken before the putty was set and still looked a little mottled, it dried in one colour and is a good solid repair, so success!

2/ Strawberry Planter

The very one that until this week had – unbeknownst to me – been host to a bunch of freeloading weevils – the poor strawberries having turned what was left of their roots up! The pot was bought somewhere in the last century. (Well… 1997 but it counts 🙂  ) As with the planter there was a danger of winter weather making the damage even more drastic. This was a repair or replace job – and having priced up a replacement… repair was definitely worth a try. 

A more complex repair because there was chunk missing from the rim and a long cracked radiating from it to half down the pot plus a section chipped from one of the planting cups. Using the putty as modelling clay I replaced the missing sections and laid a layer of clay over the crack as a suture. 

Once again I decided that the ‘repaired look’ was not unattractive and left the pot  un-sanded and planted it up with a fresh batch of young plants. Though I did put the repaired side away from the path …

The white circle in the top is a length of pipe with holes drilled along its length to get water down the centre. Without it the water tends to gush out of the top cups before the second tier get so much as a drop.

3/ Piggy!

I don’t know where or when this little terracotta piggy came from – a craft fair way back in the mists of time no doubt –  but it has been rootling around the tops of planters for years. Last winter disaster struck and one of his little trotters fell off!

A small chunk of Milliput and he’s good as new! (or will be once the putty has set and I put him back on his feet in the top of the olive pot).

All in all a successful repair sesh!

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