I have no idea about the thread ... but here is a picture of one of my mushrooms ...if you want information on "how", I would be glad to share that

Here is a link that might be useful: Concrete Fungus

Wow- that is so cute! I'd love to know how- what a great idea! My "try this" list is just getting longer every time I visit this forum!
Thanks!
Lexi

Yes, please. I would like to know how to do this. I love them!!! Great job!!! I can just see these with mosaic tops on them!!!

shrooms are probably the easiest tufa I have made, just line a bowl, and find you something to use as a stem, I have used bamboo or crete. You can also sculpt them with the tufa mix.
bonnie

{{gwi:66675}}

Here is a link that might be useful: shrooms

Hi doone,
I can't wait to see your mosaic mushrooms.
I love your little guy in the corner Louisiana.
Here's one of my mushroom men.
Debbie
{{gwi:66676}}

I have used the Fast Food cups filled with crete as stems. Wet them first and set them in the inside(bottom) of the cap.
Paws

Luv the "face" on the mushroom!

On stem making, I did a bunch of them ahead of time -using the fast food cups and such - various sizes. THEN when I was ready to make the caps, the stems were already to be placed into the wet mud.

On some really LARGE mushrooms, I found it best to just make an impression - a dent - into which the stem could fit after everything was done. This made them easier to move - I am not talking about light weight shrooms here. In fact, most of the time I made mine from cement/sand/bonding mix instead of from hypertufa.

Thanks so much! They are really, really neat! I will try to attempt this very soon...after all the other projects I have going.

I use styrofoam cones from JoAnns or Micheals. They have them up to 15 inches tall. I build around the cone then pull it out the next day. I usually can reuse it several times. I make the top using a large bowl and mold on the outside. This gives you tall mushrooms that standout in the garden

Kat

here is a link to my photobucket page. There are some pictures of my mushrooms large and small.

Here is a link that might be useful: photobucket

Kat, Love your pieces in your photo album. Billie

You are inspiring me . . .

would the mushrooms be strong enough to use as a seat? Or would you have to make it bigger to be strong enough for that?
Thanks,
Renee

Mine are not that big to sit on but I bet you could if you fixed the top to the base. Mine are free of each other and on windy days the mushroom tops sways a bit.

I am in the middle of making this for my grand progeny. Thought you might be interested. It isn't hard at all.

Here is a link that might be useful: toadstool tables and chairs

Sarah,
I would really like to hear what you think is the most difficult of this process, how big your mushrooms piece(s) will be and where you will keep them.
I also like this project and the instructions do read as very doable. Thank you for a reminder and sparking an interest in this project. Dena

Thanks for sharing, everyone. I still check in to this thread...I plan to make some mushrooms, but have gotten a bit off the track casting leaves....

There's just not enough time in the day!!!!

I agree, there are so many things that I want to try. In answer to your question Dena, The hardest thing that I have found so far, was tying all of the wire mesh to the tomato cage. It wasn't hard, just so time consuming. Also, the next one I make, i will put the wire on a plastic patio table that I have that is just the right size for the mushroom top to use as a pattern to cut out a circle. I wish that little fact would have dawned on me before I just tried to wing it with a pair of wire cutters. I would also pre cut all my tie wire.There are some really huge tomato cages out there these days. I found some regular size ones about 36" tall I suppose.SO for the table mushroom I bent down the wires you usually stick in the ground for the table top. I haven't put the wire mesh on the stool toadstools yet. I will have to figure out how to make them smaller than the table but, still large enough for my oldest grand progeny who is eight to sit on. The other 2 are 4 and 3.I will post a picture Sunday night of my weekend progress.Any encouaging thoughts and proceeduure would be appreciated. You know I can see using tomato cages in this way for many things. Birdbath supports, a tree stump ala Tango88 for plants to sit on ect....a big head with a smile on it....garden lantern support....

I agree that tomato cages offer a wealth of pre formed structure for development.
And Sarah, When I have made things with wire mesh, steel lath etc, the biggest and most time consuming is 'sewing' it together. I have a bucket full of 'thread' wire handy for tying things together.
Looking forward to seeing your project. I too was working on a mesh project earlier this evening.
Dena

I like the idea of the toadstool table and chairs. Awaiting your progress report and I just may have to give this a shot also. How wide of a strip of mesh did you use underneath the table top?

What 'cha workin' on with that mesh Dena???

Shhh, GC...I peeked at her album and she's been making a really cool garden torch. Maybe she'll start a new thread and post a link so we can admire it properly. (hint,hint)

BTW, how's the move going?

Deb

got any pictures yet of your progress??

I found that the bigger cages only have the part that goes in the ground to be longer, hence making them a 42" cage. So once you bend those down, you end up with the same height table but the table top itself can be bigger

I know I keep bugging you but do you have any pictures yet??

How did you do the ribbing? I am having difficulty understanding that part.

When rereading the instructions, for the stool to be smaller, you are to cut off the top part.

Still anxiously awaiting progress report

Dian2,
I read the instructions and made a sort of mock up of the part where she is explaining the 'ribs' that are hollow.
I used a gray piece of PVC pipe to represent the wire on the tomato cage that is bent to hold the table top. The mesh is laid over the top of the those wires, which would need to be secured to the mesh top. Then the piece is flipped over so the table top is now on the bottom, with the wire exposed (in my pic it is the PVC pipe). Over the wire is placed a sort of V with wings of wire mesh which creates a hollow over the wire/pvc, and now the wing portions must be secured to the table top. Then you put your mix ontop of the hollow, encapsalating the wire/pvc. Hope that helps. I do not see in her pictures any of that shown. I am imagining that the hollows forming the rib, over the wire is quite small. Mine is bigger just to show you. The rib creates a better support as the table top would be quite heavy, and may in fact need better support than what she describes.
Dena

Here is a link that might be useful: mushroom rib set up

thanks dena.
I was reading it as not only do the wires from tomato cage count as ribs (but not with extra wire on it) but 4 additional "ribs" would need to be made. Gonna think the wing part would go close to the stem? I would think for a total of 4 "ribs" that means I am only making one more. Now the size of table is pretty large so I would think a "rib" should be done inbetween each tomato cage wire so that would be 3 from cage and 3 inbetween=6. I wish when people posted how to't that they would take better pictures of examples. I usually have a hard time visualizing these things.
Really appreciate you taking the time to post picture and make the sample.

Wonder what happened to sarahsaid. She promised pics on Sunday. sure would like to hear how it is going for her

AHH After rereading, I think I understand the "wings" thing. I still think I will add 3 more ribs, one inbetween each wire rib. Gotta buty some more 22g wire first.

thanks again

Dian,
I agree that three ribs may be too few for a table top that is over 30". You may be wise to insert a piece that crosses from where one outer edge of the table top would be, across the opening in the tomato cage and to the other side of the outer edge. This would create "five ribs" overall, and strengthen the center of the table. You could even tie a piece of 1/2" pvc tubing as the 'wire' rib then enclose it with wire mesh as I did in the detail picture.
About the wire the gauge is not as important as your ability to insert it through the mesh, bend it and then twist it tight to hold everything secure. With wire the smaller the number the larger the wire. 18-22 is a flexible enough size to use as twists for basteing and holding. Nothing really fancy here think bread twist ties. I would think put a twist in every 4+ inches or so Your final piece is dependent on having the armature strong.
This is a great tomato cage project.
Oh yes and one other thing, when you said about instructional photos, in defense of the person who did the mushrooms; she may have provided VERY detailed photos of how toos, but who decides what will make the final copy may have little interest in whether all the detail is there, only that it fits the format or page. I have had this happen to me.
I do hope that if you do this project that you will take some digitals of the detail part where you have tied things together and show some rib action, it is an important step in all of this.
Be creative, happy casting,
Dena

thanks dena, sure gave me some ribs for thought. As you can tell, I have not played with Armatures very much. well, actually, not at all.I do have a hard time twisting the wire tight enough and I am obviously not applying enough twists in the joined pieces. after you twist it tight, do you cut off the longer lengths?

what would you think the overall thickness of table top shouldd be? I suppose some of that would be dictated by how high (big a piece of wire rib) you made cause that would have to be covered unless you made the ribs look like "V"', ribs and keep the sides sloped and the ribs are covered but you can definately see the covered ribs. Following me,

soory so many ? I tend to over analyze things

Thanks

With so many of us trying to make tabletops of various kinds, I wondered if there were any new photos or reports on this mushroom table topic.
Laura

Just can't seem to resist throwing in my two cents worth. I plan a large mushroom project later this week (not a table but a rather large set of 'rooms) using the wire mesh armature system. What I had initially planned to use as the initial mix is Surface Bonding crete. I have used this as a base coat for a lot of projects and the extra strength it adds is astounding. It is too "hairy" for the finish coat but a good finish layer of turfa or crete finishes it off. FYI
Packrat

Hmmm, how about a large bowl used to mold the top - then use a concrete form (the round ones) and fill that to make the stem and let the whole thing be one piece??? Would they need more reinforcement if I used concrete rather than hupertufa? Granted they would be terribly heavy but I doubt that we'd be moving them around... I'd like to try making four toadstool seats to scatter around the picnic area of my woodland garden where the kids hung out and I do have some HUGE salad bowls from the dollar store that would make nice fat seats... Wow venture into a new forum and I am now inspired to add more projects to my overgrown list!!