How to Make Tire Pots

Wash the tire with soap and water. Scrub the inside of the tire and side walls. Remove any dirt or debris. Do not bother washing the treads of the tire. The inside and sidewalls are the critical areas.

Lay the tire flat. Place a coffee can on top of the sidewall. Trace a circle around the base of the can on the face of the sidewall. Move the can around the circumference of the tire. Position the edge of the base of the can -- the threshold of the base's circumference -- against the line of the chalk circle you traced.

Trace another circle. Reposition the can again, in the same manner, placing the edge of the base against the previously drawn circle. Trace another. Continue tracing around the base of the can on the face of the sidewall in the same fashion until the entire face of the sidewall is marked with chalk circles.

Cut the tire with sheet metal cutters. Begin your cut at the inside lip of the tire, where the tire would seal to the rim of a wheel. Cut crescents around the entire inside circumference of the tire. Follow the chalk lines. Do not cut around the chalk circles entirely; rather, cut around the lines until you reach the point where the chalk from one circle meets that of another, then stop and begin cutting around the circumference of the next chalk circle.

Turn the tire inside out once the entire lip of one side of the tire is removed and replaced with interconnected crescents. Place one knee on the ground and the other against the threads of the tire. Grab the lip of the tire — now crescents — and pull the lip toward your waist. Once the lip of the tire folds over the threads and face the opposite direction than before, rotate the tire and grab another portion of the lip. Again, using your knee as leverage, force the inside of the tire out. Move around the entire circumference until the entire tire is turned inside out.

Paint the outside of the tire — what was the inside — entirely with a single coat of latex paint. Allow the paint to dry for three hours. Spray decorative lines and patterns over the latex paint with spray paint.