alisaburke: creating with jules: concrete garden wall hanging

You will need:

-Paper

-Cement

-Cement additive (I use a product called Bondcrete)

-Sand, for strength I have used a mix of fine sand and coarse sand.

-Corrugated cardboard

-Duct tape

-Hot glue gun

-Decorative pebbles and tiles

-Wire; thin, and thicker for the hanger

-Wire for reinforcement ie. chicken wire

-Acrylic paint

-Beads

Other useful items: Printer, rags, plastic bags, pliers, wire cutters, disposable gloves.

First, print off your templates. You can download templates here, here and here. Fold a large piece of paper into quarters and use the print out on top, placing the dotted lines against the folds, trace around and cut out the whole shape. Unfold and use these shapes as your templates.

Start with a flat piece of cardboard an inch bigger all around than each shape, and cover it well with duct tape. Make three, one for each shape.

Cut long strips of cardboard with the corrugated lines running vertically so that the strips will bend easily. Cover with duct tape.

Place one template onto the flat cardboard and trace around with marker, then using hot glue, attach the strips around the outline to make the mold. Repeat for remaining two shapes.

If you have good tape coverage on your molds you will be able to reuse them, yay!

Cut the reinforcement wire to fit inside each shape.

Cut a length out of the thicker wire for the the hanger. Cut a slit in the back of the mold where you’d like your hanger to be and poke the loop through. Tie the wire around the reinforcing wire will gain extra strength too.

Make Three little wire loops from thin wire for each shape for hanging the beads from later.

Following instructions on the cement package, mix up your concrete. I used a mix of 1 part grey cement, 2 parts fine sand, and 1 one part coarse sand. I always add some cement additive for extra strength and add it to the mixing water in the ratio specified by the product I’m using. Add water a little at a time to the dry cement and sand mix, until the mix is just wet. The drier the mix, the stronger the final product.

Scoop the concrete mix into the mold, and smooth. I used my hands with rubber gloves. Decorate your hangings by pressing glass pebbles and tiles in, and use a tool to create some decorative lines. Add your little wire loops for attaching beads later on.

Once done, cover with plastic completely and leave to cure for at least 3 days. Within this time, you can check to see if the concrete has set and you may be able to clean some of the tiles and pebbles off easily with a rag.

After they have cured, pop them out of their molds and use something sharp to scrape away excess concrete from the tiles, and polish with a damp rag.

I used a wash of dark blue acrylic to paint over the shapes then wiped back with a damp rag. I then dry brushed some white over the tops to highlight, and finally, cleaned up the tiles again using a clean, damp rag.