Your clay pot has many uses.
Make sweet homemade gifts or lovely items for your own home out of any clay pot. Whether you fire your own clay pots or simply purchase terra cotta pots from the local hardware or garden store, repurpose your pot for the home or backyard with a few basic materials.
Candles
Turn any small clay pot into a candle. Coat the inside of the clay pot with a translucent-drying, sealing glue, such as a decoupage medium, and allow it to fully dry. Melt 1-inch cubes of paraffin or beeswax in a double boiler at 160 degrees F, and add pieces of old candles for color as desired. You may also add scented candle pieces or oil, or citronella oil for an outdoor candle that will keep bugs away. Carefully pour the wax into the clay pot and quickly insert a wick straight down into the center. Once the wax cools you'll have lovely votive candle.
Decoupage Flower Pots
Create unique, collage-like flower pots using decoupage. Choose a lovely decorative paper, interesting magazine photographs, old newspapers or other paper material and cut them into small shapes. The smaller your pot, the smaller your paper shapes should be. Images printed out on an inkjet computer printer will often smear with this technique, and are not recommended. Gently sand the outside of a flower pot with a fine-grade sandpaper to smooth any roughness. Cover a small area of the pot with craft glue, then carefully lay one of your paper shapes over the glue so that it lies completely smooth. Continue around the entire outside surface of the pot, but leave the bottom uncovered so that water can still drain out.
Checkerboard Pots
Seal the inside of the pot with a decoupage medium and allow it to fully dry. Carefully outline a grid on your pot using a pencil. Fill in alternating squares of the grid with light and dark colors of paint to create a checkerboard design. If you have access to a kiln, use glaze that will harden into a colorful lacquer under extreme heat; otherwise, use acrylic or latex paint that will air-dry. Checkerboard pots are excellent for candy bowls, pets' water bowls or other fun uses around the home.
