| Concrete Leaves
Supplies:
Portland cement
Cement bond
Concrete color or dye
Drywaller's mesh tape
Scissors or some type of knife to cut the mesh tape with
Sand (a good sized pile, I think I used about 3-4, 5 gallon buckets full per leaf)
Plastic wrap
Paint brush (1 or 2 inch)
Small hand-held garden shovel (for spooning concrete onto the leaf)
Rhubarb leaf (or what ever type of leaf you would like to use)
First off, take your sand and pile it up on your work space. Someplace where you will not have to move it for a few days. I did mine on the back of a quad trailer so that I could move it inside when I was finished so I didn't disturb it. It is way to heavy to move by hand, you will end up wreaking all of your work. Take your leaf, turning it upside down so that the large veins are pointing up to you, and shape the sand underneath it so that you get all the different undulations or natural dips of the leaf. Play around with this for a while, the more bumps you get the better the leaf looks when it is done. Let the leaf lay naturally and just keep building up the sand underneath, the shape will come. The very tip of the bottom of the leaf should point upward so that when you turn it over it looks like it is curling down to the ground like a natural leaf. That, and if you don't do this, you will see the unfinished concrete underneath. If this is confusing, let me know and I will try to explain myself a bit better.
Once you are satisfied with your shape, remove the leaf and gentle cover all of the sand with some plastic wrap. Place leaf back over when finished. This stops and sand from touching the face of your leaf and leaving gritty appearances. If you are working outside, take a few nails to keep your plastic wrap from blowing around on you.
Now make up your cement mixture and add some of the cement bond to help insure that it will be strong. Add whatever color you would like at this time as well. Proper mixing instructions are on the bags and bottles. I found an 80 lb. bag of cement did 2 leaves with about 1/4-1/3 of a bag left over. This of course depends on how big the leaf is that you are working with. I mixed mine in a 5 gallon bucket, and it was about 2/3 full. The leaves I did were a pretty good size. Roughly 2 ft. by 2ft. I liked the consistency to be a bit on the wet side, but not so wet that it is runny, more like a loose oatmeal. If it is too dry it is hard to smooth out. A touch on the wet side makes it easier to smooth out and also gives you a nicer finish.
Begin spooning the cement onto the leaf spreading it out as you go. When you come to the edges of the leaf, take your paint brush, and gently brush it up to the edges. This gives you a nicer finished edge. Cover the whole leaf in this manner, making sure that everything is covered with about an inch or so of the cement, especially the very thick veins. Now cut your drywaller's mesh tape into strips and cover all of the wet cement with this. This will help make the leaf stronger. Don't worry if you have a bit of the mesh sticking over the edges, you can burn that off once your leaf is dry, but try not to get too much sticking out.
Apply one more layer of cement over top of the mesh tape brushing the edges in the same fashion that you did earlier. About another inch or so is sufficient.
If you wanted to try to make a fountain out of this, You could cut a small piece of tubing and place it into the wet cement then work the mesh tape around it before adding your last layer of cement. I would think the best place for this would be up at the thickest part of the vein at the top, but that would be entirely up to you.
Once this is finished, you are done. You can cover this with burlap if you want. Do not let this cure in the sun, it will dry too fast. I left mine in the garage to dry and it worked well. Do not attempt to remove the leaf for at least 4 days, I waited about 6 just to be sure. If you try to move it before this, you could break it.
When you have waited the allotted time, flip your leaf over and begin pulling the leaf off of the cement. You might need a needle nosed plyer to help to get some of the deeper veins removed, but be gentle so that you don't chip the concrete.
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