Today Erica and I embarked on a new adventure. We proceeded to try to make a concrete birdbath. The inspiration for this venture came from Garden Gate magazine. The idea was to start with a mound of play sand, covered with plastic to support the concrete. On top of the mound of sand, a layer of plastic was placed. We then went to the rhubarb plant in my garden and chose a large leaf. (I purposely did not harvest my rhubarb because we have been waiting for this project for months.) The leaf was placed, vein side up on the plastic and we played in the cement with plastic gloves, mounding it carefully on the leaf. (This was not as easy as the directions because wet cement has a tendency to slowly creep down with the help of ol' gravity.) However, we did manage to get two wonderful mounds of concrete. Because it was a hot day, instructions were to cover with more plastic and wet burlap. These were to cure for 48 hours but curiosity got the best of us. We carefully peeked under the plastic and surprise, surprise.....cracks!!! We just decided to make lemonade out of lemons if the end results didn't suit us, but this afternoon, we got brave, turned them over and voila!!! See the picture!!!
The leaf above is Erica's...yeah Erica!!!!
This is mine!! Notice the round stepping stone (we had a little mixture left). It is 16 inches so you can see how large they are. Also note the green veins from the Rhubarb leaf still embedded in the leaves. Tomorrow they should be dry and brush out easily. Then we will stain them. As for the crack on the underside....we caulked it and we think they are wonderful. Get some concrete mix and go for it. Tomorrow hopefully the finished product.
The leaf above is Erica's...yeah Erica!!!!
