Hypertufa Accents

Hypertufa pots are probably what everyone thinks of when they think of hypertufa. On this page are the other "things" I've made. If you prefer your tufa in pot shapes, go to my Hypertufa Pots page.

IF YOU CAN IMAGINE IT, YOU CAN MAKE IT WITH HYPERTUFA

• Decorative Items

• Functional Pieces

Back to the Hypertufa Gallery

Decorate Your World

You can find molds to make shapes like, flowers, butterflies, ladybugs and decorative stepping stones. With a little imagination, you can use other items to mold into mushrooms, leaves, or whatever YOU can imagine.

Black river stones are the spots on this ladybug. The eyes are glass beads and the antenna are plastic tubes. The ladybug scuplture is in the Extension Center's herb garden. The mold was loaned to me by Keith Fuller (I MISS YOU KEITH). And this is how I repaid him... It's the thought that counts????

Get a salsa bowl to mold the domed top and stick a wood screw, head-first, in the middle of the surface (while the tufa is still wet). When it has solidified, cut the bottom out of a paper cup and balance the small end over the screw point. Secure the sides of the cup and fill with tufa. When it solidifies, you can invert the mushroom and "plant" it in your garden (or in a container fairy garden like I did).

Here are the components after fusing. Remember when you "plant" them in your yard, they will look pretty real. Maybe a fairy ring would be sufficient whimsy?

OK, I'm a child of the 60's. Magic mushroom and toad house (molded from a child's sand castle mold). The toad house needs TWO openings at opposite ends of the house - so if a predator enters through one opening, the toad/frog can escape through the opposite exit.

I first started using elephant ear leaves for molding purely decorative items, like this painted leaf. Later, I shaped larger leaves into bird baths and butterfly puddling stations (see Functional Pieces below).

-- Go to Top --

Functional and Pretty

With a little "shaping" I've made birdbaths and butterfly puddling stations from elephant ear leaves - the invasive kind, Colocasia esculenta. I create a shallow indentation in the leaf that can be filled with water for the birds or with a special mud mixture to supply the male butterflies with the extra salts and minerals they need for successful procreation.

Pudding Station

I paint the puddling stations to make them more attractive to butterflies. Then I fill the indentation with "puddling mud" - here's the recipe. Put the puddling station near an attractive plant (attractive to the butterflies). Swallowtails especially need puddling mud, so try to put the station near a nectar or host plant (depending upon the species, host plants include spicebush, wild cherry, paw paw, sweetbay magnolia, dutchman's pipe, or citrus).

This is an anniversary present to my sister- and brother-in-law, after they married off their LAST child (whew)! It was painted with acrylic paint and a mixture of gloss, then a coat of gloss was applied to keep the color from fading. The mud puddle is lined with aluminum foil and a painted rock serves as a perching spot (although the entire leaf is a perching spot too).

Since we were visiting my husband's brother as well as his sister, we also created a puddling station for him and his wife. The flowers were hand-painted by an artist at Bayard Antique Villages. You can see the indentation that will hold the mud puddle.

Birdbath

I leave the birdbaths unfinished to help the birds find their footing. Placing a twig or a rough stone in the middle of the water pool gives them a perching area. You can put the birdbath on a table, just be sure to support the stone evenly. If you put the birdbath on the ground, be sure to place it somewhere where the birds aren't in danger of being ambushed by a cat or other predator.

Molding a birdbath and a puddling station are identical processes - so here's how I made one birdbath. Note that I have the leaf inverted - so the veins will be impressed on the finished product. Underneath the leaf I have a package filled with sand - that makes the "bowl". Remember that your mold has to have an inverse shape from your finished product. The release agent I used was cooking oil. Since there is very little support for the curing tufa, let it harden up enough to "hold its shape" while you flip it so you can peel away the leaf. Flipping a large casting is probably a two-person job.

Since this was a very large leaf I placed a layer of wire sculptor's mesh over the hypertufa, then coated the mesh with another layer of hypertufa.

Elephant ears love moist soil, so look for a creek or stream and you'll find them growing wildly along the banks. Choose fresh leaves with no holes. Bring a bucket of water to put them in to keep them fresh. You should plan to mold them up in the next day or so to prevent them from dehydrating into a "wilty" mold.

-- Go to Top --