I was thinking about papier mache' and remembered that as an art teacher one of the techniques I taught in a 3-D class was with fabric and wheat paste, the kind that's used for papier mache', purchased for the project and not homemade paste. We did the same thing. We soaked the fabric in a tub of wet wheat paste then layered the fabric over the armature we were building. Whatever dripped off was left laying. It dried hard and held it's form. Then we spray painted it gold. The project I'm thinking of was a sculptural angel to use in a play in our theater at school. So the angel needed draped clothing and even with wheat paste, she held up well. She was about my size, maybe 5' tall, but of course she had wings and I don't.
So actually she was bigger than I am. For the wings we did the same thing, used soaked cloth draped around shaped wire. It lasted for years and we used it over and over again, nothing but wheat paste and fabric. Seems that we used a heavy cotton duck type fabric, not as thick as canvas but quite thick.
And my point -- So if we are talking about a container made with the same techniques used to hold a potted plant, then I think since the cement is very strong, even thinned, it should hold up pretty well. Just like the papier mache' angel did, but for much longer. Only being kicked around or knocked over would be a problem. A lot like hypertufa, but much thicker.
If it ever stops raining, I'll try it. I'm anxious to see ckat's results and how it looks with added cement. Go Ckat Go!!!! You have much better weather than I do.
David, you too, I can't wait to see what you do. I get a little crazy when things like this come along, excited crazy and can't wait to try them. You'd think I'd be over it after teaching art nearly 40 years.
