100 dollars? For a flower-pot with shells glued to it?

Are they kidding?

Love this shell pot at Wisteria, (ignore the flash)

But seriously? 100 bucks???? We have tubs (plural – tubSSSSSS) of shells in the garage.

Let’s see if I can make a pot like that for a fraction of that price.

The home improvement stores sell terra-cotta pots for pennies.

Literally, pennies, 125 of them.

I got a 6 inch azalea pot for a buck and a quarter. – Third from the right, bottom row – Yeah the Wisteria pot was slightly taller, but I’m working with what I got here.

Also sorted through some of those tubSSSSSS and pulled out these beauties. Mostly white-ish, and nicely sun-bleached.

So that establishes my color story.

I want my shells to really stick to the terracotta, so I use Gorilla Glue White.

It’s a little bit runny, but sticks like MAD when it’s dries.

I glued a row of scallop shells along the top to hide the lip of the terra-cotta pot.

I lay them along the top overlapping just slightly.

The glue starts out runny but it dries pretty solid. No worries, because my spackle will cover all the drips.

Here’s my finished top edge.

Pretty good start, right?

After I glued them on I used a piece of blue painters tape to hold them in place till they dried.

Here’s the row of scallops that I applied to the bottom.

Then I just keep adding more shells to fill in the middle of my pot….sort of in a pattern,

……but not really.

After the glue dries completely, I peel off the blue painters tape and find this…..

Looks pretty good. Don’t it?

Just wait…..it’s guna get a whole lot better.

Premixed grout comes in a rainbow of colors. Bright White seemed a little too Bright. So I went with Alabaster.

I filled the corner of a Zip-Loc bag and gave it a small twist to hold it all in. Then I snip off the corner to make a pastry bag for “piping on” my grout.

Trust me, it’s a brilliant idea.

I “pipe” the grout on between all the shells…..and on any exposed terracotta surface.

It will look a little messy. Just be sure to immediately use a damp sponge to smooth out the grout and wipe the excess off the shells.

Be sure the shells are showing.

Let the pot dry for about 24 hours,

……..then put a plant in it.

And enjoy.

Think my shell flower-pot cost about 8 bucks. Not bad.

Plenty of grout left over to make a dozen more.

And the hardest part of the whole project?

……Waiting for the glue to dry.