Hi, I'm Rose
Hi, I'm Caro
and we are a biophilic
design studio based in Margate.
So today we're going to be showing you how to make your very own
root shoots.
And root shoots are something we designed
to just to support basically to
help with the propagation process.
So when you're rooting in water,
they're a really nice way to give support to
cuttings or seeds and
so that you can watch the roots growing.
And what we found is that actually there
weren't many products on
the market to help with this.
So we used to collect the top of smoothie cups,
which are actually
a really good way to give support.
So the project we're
going to show you is based
loosely around the top
of these, smoothie cups.
But as you'll see, you can really,
can do whatever you want
with the design because
we're using drying clay.
All you really need is a hole in
the bottom for the roots to grow through.
Plants that become
really important to us over lockdown.
And if you're looking for a project to do,
if you want to get messy with your kids,
this is a great one to do.
The tools you're going to need are,
a cup of water,
some decorators, varnish or
yacht varnish, some paintbrushes.
We've got some avocado seeds and
they're quite useful for shaping the shoots.
Any kind of tools you've got
that you might want to use for mark making.
So we've got some terrarium tools and
a knife, got some paints,
greaseproof paper,
a rolling pin and
the air drying modelling clay.
So to start, you're just going to grab a lump of
clay and soften in your hands.
And once it's nice and really
kind of pliable like this.
The way I like to do it, is just to roll the ball.
Get the avocado seed
and use it as a bit of a, a mould.
So just flatten it first,
so use the avocado seed
to just help shape they shoot.
So I'm going to push it in,
and then I'm just going to
shape around like this.
And you can really do this way you want.
And then really it's up to
you what you want to do with
the design, so to make this one,
all I did was use this little terrarium tool
it's got quite a nice, sticky end.
If any bits wrong and you want to
re-model or re-mark anywhere,
just use a wet finger,
and you can just soften
again like this, go back round and smooth it out again.
And then you can just go back
and make more marks.
So once you are happy with the shape of it,
we're going to use
a pen or whatever you've got really hanging
around and to make hole at the bottom
just to make sure the can obviously water get in.
So spin it to make a hole like that,
it doesn't have to be that big.
And then once you're happy with the design,
you just going to leave it somewhere
to dry overnight.
So because of the shape, if I might
leave it upside down somewhere,
just so it doesn't go floppy and flat.
So leave it overnight and then
it will dry out and then you can paint it.
And then I'm going to be doing
a slightly different techniques you can make
these little thin root shoots as well
which are really good for cuttings
rather than the pips.
So once you've rolled your ball of clay and we're
just going to take two pieces of baking paper.
And then we're going to roll out to
a thickness of about half a centimetre
you don't want it to go any thinner than this,
because the clay can become
to brittle. We're going to use this jar
here as a guide.
Run the knife around the outside of the jaw.
You can be really neat with this if you want to,
but you don't want it to be too perfect.
We're cutting a nice wheel of cheese.
Part of the fun of this is actually,
it doesn't really matter if it looks terrible,
You can just start again if it doesn't work out the first time.
Actually, I'm pretty happy with that,
but I'm going to add like
a few little bubbles on the top.
The great thing about
this clay as well as it, is
it doesn't actually shrink so
the design you make will be the finished size.
If you want to stick these pieces on,
you just score right on surfaces.
Mix a little bit of water
to create a little bit of a slip.
So this is one I made a couple of days ago.
You can see it's gone a little bit
lighter in colour.
And so what we do now is
if you want to paint them,
this is the time to paint them.
So I'm just going to paint this one white,
and keep it really simple.
And then once it's
painted, you can just leave it to dry.
I'm going to use the avocado seed
as a base for it to dry on, so
I am just going to stick it like that, leave it to dry.
Once the paint is dry,
and you're happy with the colour of it,
just get your yacht varnish and
a fresh paint brush and
go over and do quite a thin layer of varnish.
And this is going to make it watertight
once it's sitting in water.
Because you're not firing the clay,
you're just leaving it to sort of
dry naturally in the air.
If it was to get wet,
it will get a bit soggy again.
So the varnish just gives a kind
of waterproof layer.
Make sure to wash your seeds really well
beforehand to stop bacteria growing.
And also you can change
the water every couple of days,
even adding a teaspoon of
activated charcoal to keep
the water really fresh.
We found that the best species of
avocado to try using are hass and
holiday and other seeds that we
really like doing this with are acorns,
mango seeds and lychees.