A Cactus Grows in Brooklyn

What do you get for your sister and brother in law who have the reputation of killing plants but desperately want a green thumb?  A build-your-own-impossible-to-kill-cactus-kit of course!  And what do you do when you don't know where to get such a thing?  You make one of course!



I think the best craft projects start with the thought "this is so crazy it just might work!"  So I found a pot, painted some triangles on it, drew out some cactus designs, traced them onto some scrap plywood, cut them out with the bandsaw, sanded, painted, varnished... and my crazy idea became a tangible object!



My favorite part about it?  You can make it any way you want, with how ever many pieces you want!  If you don't want to use all the pieces, you can store them in the pot under the "dirt!"



You could even put it together slowly to simulate real growth!  Want to see the cactus grow?















I have a few kinks to work out for the next set...  I didn't allow quite enough room in the slits for my obsessive painting (four coats) and varnishing (two coats).  Some pieces were quite tight which took a little of the paint off.  Oh well, not too bad for a prototype I suppose!

As for the cactus, it is happily thriving in the window of their Brooklyn apartment and I've heard it's been rebuilt several times!