Various projects-updated 5/5/14 - Other Crafts

G Gwen Tiki Centralite Northern California Joined: Mar 20, 2013 Posts: 86	G Gwen Posted posted on Tue, Mar 26, 2013 7:46 PM Hi Lori- I am totally happy to answer questions, and next time I will post progress pics. In the meantime, here are instructions. This is really not hard to do- you should give it a shot! I purchased a concrete post tube at a lumbar yard. This one was 10" in diameter. I cut the tube in two lengthwise so that I could remove it cleanly. I tied a rope around it to hold it in place while the hypertufa set. The mix I used was 11/2 parts peat moss, 11/2 parts vermiculite to one part portland cement, plus enough water to make a consistency about like mayonaise. Since I am lousy at the math that would have allowed me to figure out just how much to mix, I did it in batches, and just kept making batches until I got the tube as full as I wanted. I let it sit for about 18 hours, then removed the cardboard tube. I used an old hand saw to bevel in the head area, then I used paper pattern pieces I had cut out to trace the basic features. Since the concrete was very soft, I just pinned them right on. After that, I started roughly carving the basic forms, using some cheap wood carving tools. I worked on it yesterday for maybe three hours, then when my back got too sore I quit for the day. This morning I went back out and put in another several hours- it is much easier to get detail on the second day. As I mentioned in the post above, don't be a doofus like me. Put the form up on something so you can work in a humane manner. A fun thing to do is to carve a small one, using an empty oatmeal box lined with a plastic as a form. I did a few of those, using just vermiculite and concrete. It carves really nicely. The only reason I went with the peat moss for this large on is that vermiculite is more expensive, and I am on a tight budget right now. p.s. No, Lori- I didn't buy a hypertufa e-book. What I did buy was a really fantastic out of print book on concrete garden sculpture called 'Creating with Concrete' by Sherri Warner Hunter. You can find it easily. [ Edited by: Gwen 2013-03-26 19:50 ]

Hi Lori- I am totally happy to answer questions, and next time I will post progress pics. In the meantime, here are instructions. This is really not hard to do- you should give it a shot!

I purchased a concrete post tube at a lumbar yard. This one was 10" in diameter. I cut the tube in two lengthwise so that I could remove it cleanly. I tied a rope around it to hold it in place while the hypertufa set.
The mix I used was 11/2 parts peat moss, 11/2 parts vermiculite to one part portland cement, plus enough water to make a consistency about like mayonaise. Since I am lousy at the math that would have allowed me to figure out just how much to mix, I did it in batches, and just kept making batches until I got the tube as full as I wanted.
I let it sit for about 18 hours, then removed the cardboard tube. I used an old hand saw to bevel in the head area, then I used paper pattern pieces I had cut out to trace the basic features. Since the concrete was very soft, I just pinned them right on. After that, I started roughly carving the basic forms, using some cheap wood carving tools. I worked on it yesterday for maybe three hours, then when my back got too sore I quit for the day. This morning I went back out and put in another several hours- it is much easier to get detail on the second day. As I mentioned in the post above, don't be a doofus like me. Put the form up on something so you can work in a humane manner.

A fun thing to do is to carve a small one, using an empty oatmeal box lined with a plastic as a form. I did a few of those, using just vermiculite and concrete. It carves really nicely. The only reason I went with the peat moss for this large on is that vermiculite is more expensive, and I am on a tight budget right now.

p.s. No, Lori- I didn't buy a hypertufa e-book. What I did buy was a really fantastic out of print book on concrete garden sculpture called 'Creating with Concrete' by Sherri Warner Hunter. You can find it easily.

[ Edited by: Gwen 2013-03-26 19:50 ]

Post #672400 by Gwen on Tue, Mar 26, 2013 7:46 PM