So much awesome ::
I had been wanting some kind of greenery in my place but I don’t have much space or direct sunlight for an indoor garden. I browsed around the interwebs and discovered various window planters (a perfect solution for my predicament), so I decided to make my own! I took a few mannequins that have been lying around…seriously, they’re made to lay down so I couldn’t really use them for clothes…and I cut their heads off! Mwahaha! Oh. Here’s how I did it ::
I used electrical tape to mark where I wanted to cut and to keep the fiber glass from cracking. I couldn’t cut them with my dremel because the neck angles were all weird due to their weird layingdownness, so I hacked at them with a flat screwdriver and hammer. I’m sure my neighbors hated me for that. It was really loud and it took forever.
Once the head was severed I marked and cut off the top/back dome to make the hole for the plant to pop up through. See how happy she is? The one above had a dome shape already built in so it was easy to bust out. The other one I was able to cut with the dremel, also easy but there was a lot of nasty fiberglass dust that seemed like it would penetrate my safety goggles and mask too easily. Oh well.
On the exposed area of fiberglass I painted two coats of black Plastidip to seal all of the sharp edges. I also drilled two small holes above each ear to attach the wire through for hanging it on the window.
Then I used white spray paint to get the base for the black metal makeup. This mannequin had eyelashes so I put scotch tape over them to keep out the spray paint. Now it’s time to unleash those Black Metal corpse paint skillz!
I did pretty classic Black Metal aesthetic on this one using regular black acrylic paint.
This one was supposed to be similar to the one above but all I could see was a Batman mask so I painted over it with creepy unibrow and drips. Then I added inverted cross pupils for extra Satan points. I also used a clear matte finish spray to seal them off.
Now that they look awesome, it’s time to make them functional. First put the wire through the holes on the side. I used “picture hanging wire” from Home Depot. Then cut some thick plastic (like what you would put on the floor if you’re painting) into a circle and hot-glue it to the base of the head from the inside. But be careful because the glue will melt the plastic. Keep the gun on a low heat setting if there is one, and don’t push too hard on the plastic, just enough to adhere to the fiberglass.
Fiberglass isn’t the best home for a plant because they retain heat. My window gets morning sun, so I put two layers of plastic loosely lining the sides of the head, hot-gluing along the top edge only. This left wrinkles of plastic throughout the head to insulate it, and wrinkles at the bottom to filter the water. I also put non-toxic beanbag foam beans in the bottom (you can also use packing peanuts) to use as a water filter also, since I didn’t want drainage holes in the bottom plastic.
I planted the foliage in the severed mannequin heads before hanging them with the wire through/around the window grate. Nice and creepy home decor :)
:: KtB ::
