Hypertufa Moai Easter Island Head Sculpture - Other Crafts

W Wavy_Davy Member St. Somewhere - Newburyport, MA Joined: Apr 29, 2010 Posts: 5	W Wavy_Davy Posted posted on Tue, Oct 28, 2014 6:19 PM Hi Lori, I used equal parts of portland cement, peat moss, and perlite. The first big batch had equal amount of sand as well for strength. The additional batches had less sand and I kind of eyeballed it. Probably a little more than half the amount of the other ingredients. I used a big bucket that my pool chlorine came in as my measuring cup. It made it easy to keep the mixes consistent. Here is a website that I found with some good hypertufa recipes - http://www.artistic-garden.com/hypertufa-recipes/ I used the third one and modified it slightly. I poured all the dry ingredients into a big plastic tub and mixed it up well to incorporate everything. Wear a mask- the dust is nasty. Then I dumped the dry mix in an old wheel barrel and added water to get it to a good consistency. Kind of like making mud pies. You want it wet enough to hold together but not to soupy that it will run. I put on rubber gloves and applied it to the form. The next day - 24 hrs later, you can begin to shape it with rasps, chisels, wire brushes, etc.... It is a joy to carve. A couple of tips. I made a screen out of a piece of wire mesh cloth to sift out the peat moss. It is pretty chunky out of the bag. Using your hands to break up the pieces. Since the build required multiple applications of hypertufa, I brushed on concrete adhesive between layers. I kept the sculpture wet during the entire process by spraying it with water and keeping it covered in plastic. To apply the chicken wire to the foam armature I bought a spool of standard heavy gauge craft wire at Home Depot, cut off long pieces and folded them over to make long staples. I just shoved them into the foam around the chicken wire. You can twist the chicken wire to give it shape. I used the wire to crimp and hold the shapes. I hope this helps. Good Luck! Dave

Hi Lori,

I used equal parts of portland cement, peat moss, and perlite. The first big batch had equal amount of sand as well for strength. The additional batches had less sand and I kind of eyeballed it. Probably a little more than half the amount of the other ingredients. I used a big bucket that my pool chlorine came in as my measuring cup. It made it easy to keep the mixes consistent.
Here is a website that I found with some good hypertufa recipes - http://www.artistic-garden.com/hypertufa-recipes/
I used the third one and modified it slightly. I poured all the dry ingredients into a big plastic tub and mixed it up well to incorporate everything. Wear a mask- the dust is nasty. Then I dumped the dry mix in an old wheel barrel and added water to get it to a good consistency. Kind of like making mud pies. You want it wet enough to hold together but not to soupy that it will run. I put on rubber gloves and applied it to the form. The next day - 24 hrs later, you can begin to shape it with rasps, chisels, wire brushes, etc.... It is a joy to carve.

A couple of tips.

I made a screen out of a piece of wire mesh cloth to sift out the peat moss. It is pretty chunky out of the bag. Using your hands to break up the pieces.
Since the build required multiple applications of hypertufa, I brushed on concrete adhesive between layers.
I kept the sculpture wet during the entire process by spraying it with water and keeping it covered in plastic.

To apply the chicken wire to the foam armature I bought a spool of standard heavy gauge craft wire at Home Depot, cut off long pieces and folded them over to make long staples. I just shoved them into the foam around the chicken wire. You can twist the chicken wire to give it shape. I used the wire to crimp and hold the shapes.

I hope this helps. Good Luck!

Dave

Post #730473 by Wavy_Davy on Tue, Oct 28, 2014 6:19 PM