A Succulent Problem

Well, I don't know if it is quite a problem. YET.  I love succulents so much.  They are such hearty, lovely plants in all their shapes and sizes.  I am not an expert on the plump little beauties, but I do know that when I go to my local succulent nursery, I leave with a box full of babies and end up with a mudroom full to the brim of new plantings.

On my last journey, I got a whole bunch of little interesting cacti too that had crest mutations - something I never really heard of before.  So now my mudroom has such lovelies as this joining the ranks of my succulents:

I also got this weirdo plant that looks like alien finger suckers on the end.  Such wonderful strangeness.

You can see a couple of my clay critters hanging out in the planters there.

Since I went a little nutty buying new plants, I decided to cull my leggy plants that have grown crazy over the last three years by propagating the cut heads and replanting them in time for the annual craft fair I run.  So, these little monsters (once I get some moss added) are headed out to new homes next week:


I'm not gonna lie - I hope these don't sell out.  I want to put them back in the mudroom!

My succulent game is set to be pretty strong this year at the fair.  Aside from these real succulent mini-gardens, I am also coming stocked to the gills with faux-succulent mini plantings and jewelry.  I have mini clay gardens in shells, watches, and jars.  There will also be succulent jewelery in the form of  necklaces, rings, and pins.  I'm super excited!
(clicky for bigger images, or just go to my flickr gallery)

Oh and PS, this one is NOT for sale... its a proof of concept that I am madly in love with.  I will likely make one to go into my etsy shop eventually though!

Black thumbs? No problem!

The kitchen still isn't done, but it is close enough now that we got a lot of our living space back, and with the space came the room (and mental energy) to actually make stuff!  YAY just in time for the Holiday Craft Fair I put on every year at my office.

This group of work came about because I wanted to make my co-worker and good friend something special for her birthday and I knew how much she loved my succulents.  I have a house full of them, and three years ago for the Spring craft fair I brought in a bunch of cute terrariums with air plants, succulents, and the like.  They were a hit and since then folk keep asking me if I am going to do it again.

Well, no, on account of half the people killed their plants within a month (how in the world do you kill a succulent??) and also it was hard for me to let go of plants that I had been nurturing for 6+ months to get them ready for the sale.  But then it dawned on me that I could just make faux succulents;  sort of how Athena made the mechanical owl for Perseus in Clash of the Titans ('Not my beloved Bubo!').

So I made a few desk top terrariums (the air plants are real):

And a few adorable mini- terrariums.  The base is about the size of a quarter:

Pendants:

This is my favorite!  And the one I am keeping.

And, Christmas ornaments in two sizes!  But really, I think you could hang these in a window all year long:

In a strange twist of coincidence, the day I started on these, I saw that the new PolymerCafe magazine came out with the cover being succulents.  So weird!  I ordered it but it hasn't come in yet. They probably have a much better technique for making these than I managed - but we shall see!