Early this week I flew to New York City to hang out with the Shapeways crew to be in a film that's part of something new they're working on.
I won't give you many details yet, but expect to see a Bike Planter's View of New York.
SUMMER VISUAL UPDATE
CommentWe've been pretty busy these first few weeks of (official) summer. Around the studio, we've been working on new packaging and taking breaks to check out construction and movie sets. We have new items we're working on, and we took a trip to New York to check out the Bicycle Film Festival with Belle Helmets and get some inspiration in the cute little town of Hudson. We thought we'd give you a visual update and tease you about new projects we have ahead of us.
HOW TO PLANT GUIDE, PART 2: AIR PLANTS
DIY, What We're Making, How to PlantCommentBromeliads, better known as tillandsia, are one of the easiest plants to care for. These plants are found naturally in warm tropical places, but also do well indoors elsewhere. They can be easily found at most nurseries and online. We like to use air plants in our planters not only because they are so easy to care for, but because they look really cool, too.
Today we bring you the second of many installments in our How to Plant Series, and show you how to plant one of our favorite plants, the exotic and always interesting air plant. Since we have a few planters that call for using air plants, we thought showing you a visual guide is the best way to explain what to do once you get your planter. These instructions also apply to attaching tillandsia onto other objects, too, so you can follow these instructions to attach them to (almost) anything. Please note that we refer to using a hot glue gun in this tutorial, so pay attention while you're using this tool, and supervise any children who want to try this craft.
To start out, you’ll need a planter, an air plant, and a hot glue gun (or another adhesive like epoxy or E6000). For this tutorial we used this planter, which is designed to be used with air plants. These are the easiest plants to use in our planters, and these instructions will be really short and straightforward.
Start by plugging in your hot glue gun, and wait until it gets hot enough for the glue to be ready to use. While you wait for your glue to heat, play around with how your plant fits best in the planter if you haven't already.
You’ll add a drop of glue into the planter where you want your plant, and then position your plant inside where you want it. You’ll have to act quickly on this step before the glue sets, so have your plant nearby. After this, you’re all set!
You might be worrying about the effect of the hot glue on the plant, but it won’t hurt the plant. Other glues work well, too if you have access to them, like E6000 or other epoxies, but don’t use super glue.
Caring for your airplant once you’ve mounted it is very simply. A small spray of water a few times a week will be enough to keep it healthy, and make sure it gets indirect sunlight when you’re not wearing it.
And that’s it! Now you’re ready to wear an airplant!
PEEK INSIDE THE STUDIO
Just for FunCommentIn March we moved into a new studio in the Grant Park neighborhood of Atlanta. Now that it's June, we've finally finished moving in and making it feel like a real workspace. The studio is a shared space with two other local artists who are growing their own creative businesses. We thought you'd like to take a little peek into where we work.
The building that we work in was orignally a church built in the early 1900s. We're lucky to get to work in a historic building, and we have great natural and ventilation- something you appreciate when you work with plants!
It's still a work in progress as we grow, and this is a snapshot of the studio this June. If you look closely to the pictures, you might get an idea of what we're working on next!
HOW TO PLANT GUIDE, PART 1: SUCCULENTS
What We're Making, DIY, How to PlantCommentIn the first part of our How to Plant series, we're going to show you how to plant a succulent in your wearable planter. We get this question a lot, and while we include directions in each planter on what to do, we thought a visual guide would help everyone out best. Planting a succulent in a planter is actually really simple, and shouldn't take you more than 5 minutes.
To start out, we recommend getting everything together first. You'll need the planter you've chosen, some soil, a plant, water, and a pen or a pencil. For this tutorial, we're using a type of succulent called sedum that grows as a ground cover in many places. You should be able to find it at any nursery or home improvement center, but you can also find it growing in many places if you know what to look for.
Before you start, check your plant clipping for roots. Most succulents will begin growing roots a few days after they are cut. If they don't have roots, your plant will still grow them, and just plant enough of the stem below the top of the soil.
Step One: Insert plant clipping into the planter.
Step Two: Add soil. You'll only need a few pinches of soil, and make sure that the roots are fully covered.
Step Three: With your pen or pencil, gently compact the soil down to make sure it stays in place.
Step Four: Add a few drops of water to the planter.
And now you're done! Clean any excess soil and water from your planter, and it is ready wear. After a few days the roots will be more stable. Proper care is still needed to take care of your plant, and make sure it gets sunlight when not being worn. Of course you don't need to use these directions in just our planters. You can use these same steps for planting a succulent in a larger vessel, or even adding a little bit of charm to any other small object you can find.
BIGGEST QUESTIONS
CommentBy far the most frequently asked question we get is “How do you plant something in these planters?” It’s a pretty simple question, but is really important to our products.
The plants that work best in these planters are air plants, succulents, and wheatgrass. They’ll all require different types of maintenance, and starting tomorrow we’re going to begin tutorials to answer your questions. We’ll show you how to plant, and care for new small plants in your wearable planters (or any other small planter you might have). Other plants work great, too, and we’ll be sharing our more recent experiments with you in our new “How to Plant” series.