Bricking Up 2: Electric Boogaloo

Got the last of the bricking up done today.  Bit of slow going with that part as I wanted to use actual wood glue here to hold everything together.  Which meant doing one spot, and letting it dry enough that working on another wouldn't shift things around and make pieces fall out.  After a quick dirty stain (I just use dark brown apple barrel craft paint and water it down), the buildups aren't exactly seamless at this stage, but at least they aren't glaringly obvious.

I'll let the glue and the paint dry overnight to make sure its completely dry before sealing it over again.  After that I plan to use a drill and attach the driftwood to the base with actual screws.  I don't want to forget about it in a year or two, try to pick it up by the top, and rip the entire thing to pieces, so the big chunks are all going to get bolted down.  Then it'll just be a matter of flocking it with moss.

Oh, and I got the drainage hole drilled and sealed.

Might not look like much, but this is a showpiece container, its not going to be what the plant is left in outside in the rain.  It only has to be able to drain excess when I water, and a quick piece of broken pottery over the hole to keep it from getting clogged with soil means thats more than enough.

While I was out tossing some dead plants, I found one of the peppers I let freeze.  Although I was losing the light, I went ahead and grabbed some rough ideas of where to put the actual Reaper when the time comes.

(As usual, I'm using my iphone in place of an actual camera, so apologies for picture quality.  They look good as these thumbnails, just don't click on 'em.  I'm not bothering to do any editing on these things, just tossing them straight up from the camera, so they'll be blurry as hell at full size.)

1) Forehead

The most obvious choice for where to put the plant.  Means I'd get maximum roots over the front half of the skull, but may cause some trouble trying to get at least a few good roots going all the way over the back, which means there could be anchoring problems.

2) Eye Socket

This one would be a little harder to grow because of the need to get the skull buried at just the right angle during growing season.  Why would that be an issue?  Because if I go this way, I'd want to curve the trunk to give it a more windswept and active appearance, which means letting the trunk grow a bit at an angle before digging the whole thing up, rotating it to be flat, and then letting the trunk angle up again on it's own.  There would also be the potential anchoring issues of the forehead, only more so.  However, it definitely looks much more interesting as the plant seems to be almost devouring the skull as opposed to simply sitting on it.

I really have to admit, I'm loving how this looks, and the asymmetry of it really lends to that feeling of it being wild.

3) Party Hat

Didn't take any really good ones of this one because I'm not really considering it, but having it here for the sake of being thorough.  This one puts the plant directly on the top middle of the skull like a party hat.  This would be the easiest and the safest route, as it would give the roots an equal distance all around to cover, which means it would get a good tight hold all the way around the skull.  However, its the most boring and kind of dorky looking of all the options.  Kind of looks like a skull cupcake with a candle on it's head.  Which would have been good for the library book option if fate had so decreed, but not so hot for the forest floor theme I'm apparently going with.