I learned how to make the leaves last july, 2003 in the seattle area. My mom's neighbor taught me with a rhubarb leaf. I painted and shipped them home to Chicago, and spent the rest of the summer making leaves. I had @ 50 leaves on my patio to paint. I seal them with cement sealer before I paint them with Patio paint. I've left me leaves out all winter (and it's really cold here) and they look good as new. I saw a bunch of elephant ears while driving and knocked at the guy's door and he ended up giving me a few and of course I made and painted one for him. At the start of fall he called me and requested another for his son and gave me the rest of the leaves before he dug them up to store for winter. I must say I'm addicted.Last night I made my first batch of the season, 5 very large rhubarb leaves and I also took 5 large hollycock leaves and made them into a bowl shape. Can't wait to unveil them. I also planted 3 elephant ear plants for myself, giant hostas and one gunnera. I may have to bring the gunnera in and let it grow larger til next summer. It's a pokey grower. So far all of my leaves have been acquired from begging at strangers' doors. Everyone has been very generous and I always give them one in return. I've make some giant hosta leaves also and some giant crazy looking weeds. I've sold many at a holiday show last December and will try to sell them in an art fair I will be in next weekend. I've been experimenting with pricing because it''s so hard to decide what to charge. I spend alot of time painting them to get a multi-dimensional look. Wish me luck, people seem pretty intriged with them. Oh yeah Canna leaves make pretty castings and I put painted balls under them as feet and place on a table. and on and on and on. Sorry I'm so long winded, but I can't say enough about it. P.S. I wear a mask when mixing my cement. Last yaer I could feel that fine dust in my lungs. After smoking for many years, (I've since quit) that's all I don't need.

Well, I've done several projects since my first inquiry. I used a hosta leaf, appropriated from a friends garden while he was on vacation, but the mix must have been too dry for it had some surface bubbles and mild flaking of surface concrete. The next effort, a crambe leaf, used a looser mix but it was so runny, I had to blot some of the moisture that ran off the edges with paper towels. It developed a crack along the midrib before it was dry. I didn't unmold it at that time. In an effort to reduce surface bubbles, I next tried a leaf with some Sakrete Fast Setting Cement Patcher. It set up so fast, I could hardly pat, pat, pat. It did have a nice surface though. I used some of it to patch the crack in the prior day's crambe leaf...reinforced with fiberglass tape. That seemed to save the crambe. I won't be using that again, though I wonder what would happen if I added some of that to the standard 1:3 mix. Next I tried a couple of test leaves with mortar mix to see if I could get a smoother surface with fewer bubbles. I made a thin cast, only about 1/2 inch thick. I thought it had a very nice surface with few tolerable, small bubbles and the consistancy seemed to be finer than when I used the silica sand in my original project. I'm very tempted to try a large project with the mortar mix but that raises a whole bunch of new questions. Is it as strong as the 1:3 portland to sand mix? Should I use a fortifier? Do I spray and cure it as other mixes? I really hope someone can comment on the mortar mix. Now my last question is really a dumb one. When do you paint your leaves? After they've cured. What if you paint them before? I've seen threads where someone showed a picture of a just unmolded leaf and the next day showed it painted. Thanks, everyone, for sharing your thoughts and expertise. These projects have been so much fun I'm WAY behind in my housework, not that I care, mind you. Fleur

Syllabus, sorry I took so long to get back to you. I don't know where time goes sometimes. I kept thinking I would show my hubby your e-mail, but he doesn't get in until late at night, and I keep forgetting to ask him. So I will try to answer your questions myself. 1. The leaves are cast from actual leaves, no molds. We used a portland and sand mix to get the fine texture. I think we just put the leaves on a sheet of plastic and put the mix on them. I guess that's why the edges look so fine. The aren't cast on a bed of sand because we wanted them perfectly flat. 2.The leaves on the legs were cast with regular quickcrete 5000 poured into a round concrete tube with the leaves attached to the inside of the tube. You spray the top of the leaf with adhesive, and then stick them on. It's best to use a heavily textured leaf, because you loose a lot of detail with the chunky quickrete. 3. The leaves we used were grape, hosta, burdock, and I don't really remember what else. I know the hosta leaves worked well. The dimensions are: the top: 44" x 18" x 3". The height of the legs I didn't measure, it's raining outside, and I don't want to run back out there! :) My hubby says he thinks we used 10" or 12" molds for the legs, with a smaller tube inside to take up some of the space, (so they wouldn't be so heavy). 4. I don't really remember how much concrete colorant we used. I think we mainly colored the original leaves, but not the bench, but I can't swear to that. 5. The cast leaves were very thin, I would probably make them a little thicker. We made the frame out of 2'x4's and set the cast leaves into the wet cement. Then we sprinkled small rock around the leaves. If I did it again, first and most important, decide where you want it, and make your bench as close to that location as possible. This puppy was heavy, I don't remeber exactly how we got it to that location, but I remember it wasn't easy! I think I would probably skip the little rocks on top, to be honest, they hurt your tush when you sit on it! :( But it would look kind of neat with little marbles or those flat marbles you can buy at craft stores stuck in it here and there. I also think you could put the leaves on the bottom of the seat mold and just pour concrete over it. They would match the legs better, but you would loose the detail. We never did seal it, I know bad me. It did develope a couple of small cracks in the thincast leaves. That really surprised me, but maybe it's because I didn't put sealer on it. Hope that answers the majority of your questions. Let me know if you have anymore. One last thing, you have to make sure that everything is as level as possible, you don't want a bench that is thinner at one end, and you don't want your legs to be uneven, or your bench will wobble.

How wonderful that nathanhurst couldn't tell which one was the cast one!! You have achieved realism!! Way to go! I had a hard time finding your masterpiece too. I have switched to satin paint for my leaves so they have the dullness of the real thing. I also use exterior latex so sealing them with a gloss sealer is unneccessary. (I apologize if I am guessing at what paints you used and assumed that you sealed it.) Your color choices and paint techniques are spot on. Bravo!! Amanda