Making paper mashy weatherproof

Evening all.

I've been pondering an idea of taking a cheapo planter, and making it stone effect by padding it with paper mashy and then painting it. Of course paper mashy is not in the least bit weatherproof. Any ideas how to change that?

 

The usual way of doing it is mixing cement with moss peat, roughing up the container applying waterproof PVA, and smearing the mix on the container.

 

Have a Google for "papercrete" Clueless.
Here's one link for a starter -
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hypertufa/msg1221323018423.html

 

I once made my version of those 'pulp' type hanging basket liners from papier mâché and made them waterproof by painting the finished object with yacht varnish (or maybe it was laquer, can't honestly remember now - but either would work.) If you are making something which needs drainage holes, just make sure you give the edges of all the holes several coats of the varnish too, it's amazing how quickly the whole thing will disintegrate by soaking up water even from this tiny exposed area - as I discovered the first time I made them!

Since there are a couple of ways to make papier mâché (making a pulp and moulding it into a shape or object, or just sticking layers and layers of paper together) you could try the second method - moulding or scrunching the paper as you go to create a stone effect - and use a waterproof PVA or similar whilst doing it, then once you've got the shape/outline you feel is realistic, paint it with aforementioned varnish et.al.

If you want your planter to have an 'aged' look you might be lucky with the T&T method of just painting/spreading a layer of yoghurt and moss - mashed up together - over it, or for an aged stone colour, try yoghurt with soot or manure. These work well on porous things like terracotta pots but whether they'd work after you'd painted something with a layer of varnish I'm not sure (especially since the yacht varnish is designed to be mould and mildew resistent).

Now, what I'd do, (depending on what sort of colour/look you're going for) would be to paint the finished 'stone' with say green (if you wanted it to look 'mossy') and mix some sawdust in with the paint before painting it on - use everything from the very fine stuff to really 'lumpy' bits (note the use of technical terms here!) and I'd use more than one shade of green, not mixing them beforehand, but rather decanting them into say takeaway containers, dipping the brush in one shade, then in another, then painting to get a mottled effect. Of course, if you didn't want a 'moss' effect, you'd use whatever colour, or colours, you fancied.

Well, that's how I'd go about doing your planters anyway.