Cement Sculpture now with some colour - go to last post to see! - Other Crafts

N notiki Member Melbourne Australia Joined: Mar 05, 2013 Posts: 7	N notiki Posted posted on Mon, Jun 3, 2013 4:45 AM Hey thanks for the comments. A few answers and thoughts... Red cheese wax....came from...an auction at Cheese factory! I was going to use it for some other project. Lets say it was cheap and it is fun to carve with. Chicken wire over foam will work fine. Its just hard to manipulate the wire into the shape. If you don't need to move your 6' tiki afterwards you can use a thicker cement coating to cover any imperfections in the wire forming. My lightweight cement uses E spheres. These are a very fine filler made from fly ash floaters. These are from a coal fired powerstation. They are little hollow balls and are light and free flowing. They are used with normal cement in place of sand. As they comprise of flyash they do react a bit with the portland and make the cement stronger over a long curing period (like years). They are an industrial material and not readily available. I also mix in tiny basalt fibers. The cement part is about 10 percent silica fume and 90 percent portland. Its not really the stuff you get from the local hardware store. I was thinking of bagging up some of the powder so other Aussies could give my technique a try. Cheers

Hey thanks for the comments. A few answers and thoughts...

Red cheese wax....came from...an auction at Cheese factory! I was going to use it for some other project. Lets say it was cheap and it is fun to carve with.

Chicken wire over foam will work fine. Its just hard to manipulate the wire into the shape. If you don't need to move your 6' tiki afterwards you can use a thicker cement coating to cover any imperfections in the wire forming.

My lightweight cement uses E spheres. These are a very fine filler made from fly ash floaters. These are from a coal fired powerstation. They are little hollow balls and are light and free flowing. They are used with normal cement in place of sand. As they comprise of flyash they do react a bit with the portland and make the cement stronger over a long curing period (like years). They are an industrial material and not readily available. I also mix in tiny basalt fibers. The cement part is about 10 percent silica fume and 90 percent portland.
Its not really the stuff you get from the local hardware store. I was thinking of bagging up some of the powder so other Aussies could give my technique a try.

Cheers

Post #680559 by notiki on Mon, Jun 3, 2013 4:45 AM