My upcycled Zebra Pattern Plant Pot

One of my favourite things about living And working in East Africa over the last four years was seeing Zebras in their natural habitat.

Every safari trip you take in either Tanzania or Kenya you are pretty much guaranteed not just a glimpse of these beautiful black and white animals, but the site of scores of them grazing on grasslands.

Zebras live in Africa, but the various varieties inhabit different countries. The Plains Zebra lives in the eastern and southern Africa, Grevy’s Zebra in the Ethiopia and northern Kenya and the Mountain Zebra in South Africa, Namibia and Angola.

Whenever I  see a punda milia, zebra in Kiswahili, I am always amazed at how perfect their patterns are and I also love the fact that each zebra’s stripes really are unique. Just as no two human finger prints are alike, no two zebras have the same stripe pattern.

My love for these graceful animals has resulted in them being featured a lot in my sketchbooks. Following visits to the Serengeti in the Ngorogoro Crater in Tanzania and Amboseli National Park in Kenya, I have done lots of paintings of them.

Recently, I was having a clear out and was just about to give away an old weather-beaten terracotta pot, when I had a change of heart and decided to do a spot of upcycling instead. Staring at the dull colour the distinctive stripes of zebra came to mind.

So with a little help from Modraniht, my cat, I gave the old plant pot a new lease of life.

I am really pleased with the finished result and can’t wait to put a large plant inside it.