Don't Feed the Plants!

After an intense week of rehearsals, we opened for our production of Little Shop of Horrors. If you've never seen the show, it's about an alien plant that wants to eats people. (The last musical number in the show is titled "Don't Feed the Plants.")

As it is customary to give flowers at a performance (and live plants and I don't do well together), I decided the best option was to give fake flowers. And what kind of plant would be better than tiny versions of the alien plant? (Named an Audrey 2 in the script. Affectionately called Twoey by us in rehearsals)

As Twoey plants aren't easy to find in stores, I set out to make my own.

Supplies: Easter eggs that open lengthwise, green pipe cleaners for the stem, green felt (or pre-made leaves from silk flowers), an awl or heavy duty needle, acrylic paint, mini flower pots, mod podge sealer, white ribbon, hot glue, red fabric, and foam.

Step 1: Cut the Easter eggs apart

Step 2: Heat the awl/needle with boiling water and poke two holes in the back of each egg about 1/2 inch from the lip. This would be where I later re-connected the eggs to make the mouth hinge.

Step 3: Paint the eggs. I did green, then speckled them with yellow and purple paint. I added purple around the lip of each egg half to look like lips.

Step 4: Seal your paint with a coat of mod podge.

Step 5: Thread the pipe cleaners through the holes in the back of each shell and twist them together into a stem. Now your plant should be able to open and close it's mouth.

Step 6: Using hot glue, fold (and glue) your white ribbon into triangle shapes. These will become your Twoey's teeth. I did four teeth on the bottom jaw and four on the top. Glue the teeth to the inside of the egg shells.

Step 7: Cut out foam in oval shapes that will fill each egg shell.

Step 8: Cut out the red fabric in ovals slightly larger than your foam shapes. Using hot glue, glue the red fabric to the foam, wrapping the fabric around the sides of the foam.

Step 9: Glue the red-covered foam into each egg shell. This will give you the inside of the mouth.

Step 10: Cut out felt into desired leaf shapes and paint them as desired. Glue the leaves to the pipe cleaner stem (or to the backside of the eggs, depending on the look you want). If you are using silk flower leaves, you can thread them onto the pipe cleaners like they are on the silk flowers.

Step 11: Cut a small circle of foam and snip along the radius of this circle. Wrap this around the base of your pipe cleaner stem. Glue this into the bottom of your flower pot to help give your plant some stability.

Step 12: Give it to a friend and remind them, "It may offer you fortune and fame, love, affection and instant acclaim, but whatever it offers you, don't feed the plant!"

The whole process took maybe a few hours (+ interruption breaks as I waited for paint to dry). I made 11 over a 3-day period and spent less then $20.

Simple, fun, and they looked great from stage!