Fake Lava Rock Progress Pictures

Here's some quick snapshots I just took of our backyard lava rock experiments - it's overcast this morning.
The first picture is a planter border we did using concrete. The flagstone border isn't in yet and the rock just has a base coat of paint.
The second shows the small raised planter. We did the lava texture by hand with a small broom and sticks, and then we imbedded seashells here and there. I've got a baby bamboo plant in there, it will get about 15 feet high eventually. That bamboo structure thing is made of steel and it supports an awning cover we put up in the summer. There's a mister system painted to look like bamboo worked into it. It gets super hot here in Sacramento!
The third shows the planter and a couple of benches I just made out of old pieces of redwood from the deck that used to be there. The benches are mounted on metal posts that are sunk into concrete 2' below the flagstone - they're strong! I'm going to clad the metal posts with carved wood and the flagstone is going to get moss growing in between them. There's a border around the back of the planter made of pieces of flagstone in concrete to make it easy to mow the lawn later.
I just threw in the fourth picture - I made this a couple of weeks ago just for fun. The bird is one of those cheap plastic ones I painted up, I think it came out nice.
That's the latest - we have a long way to go, but we're getting good experience that's for sure. We're working our way up to some big stone tiki ruins, maybe a stone/lava barbecue and definitely a sandy beach somewhere! Thanks for all the advice from Tiki Central folks.

[ Edited by: pariartspaul on 2004-04-19 09:48 ]

Looking good! Keep those pics coming. The stone ruins sounds interesting.

Wow! looks great, looks like you have a lot of room to play with in the yard...looking foward to more pics..

WOW! that's looking really nice. I can tell you have put a lot of time into that lava so far. It all looks terrific.

My word that's coming along beautifully.

And that bird is one of those touches that takes a space from 'wow' to 'how exactly did you get the dimensional portal to Adventureland into your back yard?'.

Very nice!

That lava is really nice, especially with the plantings on it.

Thanks for the pics...Looks natural,nice job!

now to make sure my wife doesn't see these, so I don't have to hear" why don't you try that"!

p.s. i may be pm'ing you on help.

Oh yeah.. I'll be doing that.

That second one looks like something you hoisted out of Hawai'i.

Better make sure no Tiki-folk see it or they'll start warning you about the taboo.

:wink:

[ Edited by: pablus on 2004-04-19 23:38 ]

You are doing an amazing job!

Do you have any tips on creating the lava? We would like to cover the painted bricks on our fireplace with faux lava.

Thank You!!
Gem

Pariartspaul,

My friend up da street did a fake lava wall and took some black inexpensive coco joe tikis and imbeded(sp?) them into the lava walls while the cemement was still soft. It looks great! as if they are ancient lava walls that were carved out in certain spots.

I only thought of that because i see da hapa wood style coco joe on one of your lava walls. He used about that size coco joes. just a idea i'm throwing at ya.

good job.

For covering the fireplace brick with lava, I think it would be pretty easy. Get some of that metal lathe that they sell at home depo and nail or screw it onto the brick. Use mason's mix cement and give it a once over. After it sets, give it a second coat and do your sculpting on this coat. Use a little whisk broom and pat on an overall texture to start with, then come in with little sticks to make more holes here and there. For the paint, we sprayed on exterior latex and it worked great. We also imbedded little sea shells here and there, it looks cool if that's the kind of look you want. Oh, and at the end, I sprinkled on a little very fine mica or rainbow translucent glitter for a finishing sparkle. But just a little!

About imbedding the tikis in the lava, well, I'm going to try to sculpt an Easter Island type head next, maybe six feet high or so. I'll let you know how it goes.

Mahalo all for all the encouragement and good advice!

:o WOW! Really nice work! Please ffeel free to give us the low down on how you're doing this...if it's not a secret. :wink:

Pariartspaul,
Thank you so much for sharing your technique! We may have more questions as it goes up; I hope that you don't mind. Thank you so much!!
Gem

Great work, pariartspaul. You definitely nailed the appearance of lava rock.

On 2004-05-06 15:35, Sam Gambino wrote:
Great work, pariartspaul. You definitely nailed the appearance of lava rock.

I agree, looks perfect.

I would really love to see those pictures of your lava rock along with some tutes ... :wink:

I've got to post some new pictures on Shutterfly soon. I had these originally hosted through Vendio and they expired. I have the old pix on disk somewhere....

I'll probably just go out and take some new snapshots - maybe tomorrow! Long live LAVA!!

I'd love to see the photos again too!