How to Make Moss Graffiti

Well I had a plain outdoor wall at my house and I really wanted to put something cool on it, so I looked for some graffiti but not and ordinary graffiti ,Moss Graffiti, I had seen some on the internet and I researched how to make it.
It was pretty simple, so here I am making an Instructable on it for any of you who wants to make a great outdoor project this Spring or Fall. 
Make sure to leave a comment or a photo of your graffiti I really like everybody's feedback and read all your comments. 

Step 1: Select a Space

This is the easiest step of all, what you really have to make sure it is a space were you have permission to grow your moss. If the wall or surface were you make it on has paint, make sure me sure your authorized because the moss will remove the paint from the surface.
Not only walls are good surfaces for the graffiti but any porous surface is best, well the moss will have a better surface to adhere to. I have also seen moss on bricks, plain soil and wood and it grows well.

Step 2: Gather Your Ingredients, Materials and Tools

This is very basic you will need three ingredients and and a few tools for all the process.

Ingredients:
- Moss. (About two big clumps in this recipe).
- Buttermilk. (Two cups for the recipe). This could be replaced with plain yogurt.
- Water. Not pictured. (From one to two cups for the recipe).
- Sugar. I used about half a teaspoon,

Note. To make homemade buttermilk like I did, you need vinegar and whole milk, add one tablespoon of vinegar to a cup and fill the rest with milk, let sit for 5 minutes and it's ready to be used.

Tools and Materials.

- Hard surface to cut on, I used MDF. Used later on the Template step.
- Blender. 
- Cutting tools. Used later on the Template step.
- Containers. Used for mixing and keeping mixture during painting.

Step 3: Prepare Your Template

For the template I used some geese, because I think it looks kinda cool. In my opinion the best pictures for templates are silhouettes or stencils well the black spots on the paper are the ones filled with moss on the wall.  You could also freehand something on your wall if you think it will turn out cool.

There are just a few basic steps for getting a template on to your wall.

- Print your stencil or silhouette on regular paper the quality doesn't really matter what matters is that you like it.
- Pass your picture on to bigger paper if you wish to, I did paper put for multiple uses acrylic could be a great option and a laser cutter you be really precise on the drawing and the cuts.
- Cut your picture out and you have your template now just tape it to the wall when painting.

Step 4: Prepare Your "Milkshake"

This is pretty simple just add all your ingredients and blend, to avoid clumping and get a smoother consistence blend in small batches until all the ingredients have been used.

After blending transfer your milkshake to a container for the painting process.

Step 5: Paint and Wait... Patience Is a Virtue

After taping your templates on the wall use your brushes to apply your paint on the wall or surface you want your graffiti on, after painting simply mist your artwork with water everyday until its sprouts, it will take from two to three weeks, on humid places like where I live in the misting can been done about two or three times a week but on hot climates it may be done twice a day.

All this process takes about a day, the long part is waiting for it to grow well moss is a slow grower, following all these simple steps you can have an eco-friendly artwork on your wall. If you make it make sure to leave a comment or any other type of feedback.

Thanks for viewing this Instructable :) 

Comments

[dswroton]

how long can I keep my moss paint in a jar,and where should I keep it ?

[Jimpix]

Really amazing and original. I wonder if this really moss is growing or not. I know a company who makes this kind of walls. These can then be suspended and there is no maintenance. You should keep it moist?

[BrendaH46]

what is the out come.can you update picture?

[batery99]

i think adding gelatin or agar agar would result better results. they'd keep more water and moisture and water won't easily evaporate.

[StaceyC1]

What kind of moss did you use/would you recommend?

[BLASTFEMI]

Add a little bit of dry clay powder to the recipe to make the mix stick better. You can also 'paint' rocks and planters. I'll have to take a pic of the wall I did years ago! Thanks for the reminder! Cool prject. I love moss!

[StaceyC1]

What dry clay powder do you recommended?

[juan diego muñós]

whats thad thing?

[juan diego muñós]

have any one finish?

[hegure_ryu]

You can always tell the area of a hardcore garden gang by their moss graffiti. :)

Like other's here I would like to see the results.

[NoPinky]

I'm thinking of doing this, instructions and how to's are all over the web. But I haven't found any one documenting the process and really succeed. Most articles only cover the instruction how to start. It seems like this is a good idea but the rate of sucess is rather low.

If anyone actually made it work or know of a site documenting the process until the end, please share

[mpvidmar]

Could you post a picture after it fills in a bit? Can it survive the winter?

[jsrubianoch]

My mod died, really don't know why but it was a pretty nice experiment.

[ale18]

agree

[ardnon]

Any pics of the finished artwork yet?

[orangepear120]

amazing but my mixture was way too runny and just dripped down the wall

[DanTDM]

cool

[tacocats]

awesomeness

[JoLoveN]

Make sure u add pics once it grows. Please! I wanna see how this turns out.

[jsrubianoch]

I did the Moss Graffiti with all the research and I already knew that, nevertheless, thanks for the feedback.