Hi Sandy
It would help if you told us which lovely things you would like to start with.
There is quite a span between a simple Hypertufa bowl and a large leaf casting.
Materials and techniques can be vastly different.

Howdy & welcome Sandy!

David is right on.

Lots of molds are just recycled containers of varying sizes.

Best of luck with your new hobby!

Anything can be used as a mold almost. Plastic works real well with some type of release agent. Start small, a bowl, planter something to get your feet wet. I have used cardboard boxes lined with plastic bag for a form, or a plastic bowl, or a wastebasket.
Pick a receipe and off you go.
Paws

I'm new to this too. I tried a few different recipes, colours and molds before making a large trough. The large one is till curing, but here are the others I made. All this plus a trough twice the size of these from one bag of cement.

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The two bigger ones in the picture were made outside a cardboard box covered in plastic. That worked well, but might have worked better if I'd filled the box with sand since the sides tended to push in. The other three were built outside bricks coated in plastic. They proved very difficult to release and one of them cracked in half (the one at the front, mortared back together). The bricks have no give and so any slight irregularity binds tight. I made the large trough inside a wooden former, again coated in plastic. Forming inside gives a slightly different look to forming outside and you might want to roughen the exterior after you release.

I have tried these recipes:

Cement:Peat:Sand:Vermiculite 1:1:1:1 This is my favourite recipe. It is strong, light enough for my needs, and I like the appearance. The trough on the right.

Cement:Peat:Sand:Perlite 1:1:1:1 Not so good. A little lighter but probably not as strong. The appearance is too smooth for my taste. The trough on the left, stained.

Cement:Sand:Vermiculite 1:2:3 This really is a lightweight concrete, not hypertufa. The proportions should be OK, but it is either curing very slowly or is very weak. Very pale colour, like regular concrete, might be good with a stain or dye. The small trough at the back with a little ferrous sulphate in the mix to give a slight pink blush.

All these recipes include sand because I want enough strength to survive the wet and freeze/thaw conditions here. The sand adds quite a bit to weight. You might choose to use a mesh inserr of glass fibres instead to get flex strength and resistance to cracking with less weight.

Thanks for photos and info.
Is this vermiculite available in the hardware store?
Would like to try plant containers first and then do leaves,I love those leaves..
Thanks
Sandy

Vermiculite and perlite are available at Nursery's or WalMart, Lowes etc.
Paws

You can find vermiculite for horticultural use in small bags quite easily but it will cost you over $5 for eight quarts which will do you maybe one decent sized trough. If you can find it in the four cubic foot bags (roughly twenty times the size), they will cost $10-$20 and last you a good long while. Look at pool supplies, builders supplies, and if you are lucky nurseries sometimes have the big bags.

Perlite is much the same, but I don't have a price guide for you at the moment. More or less the same as vermiculte I think.

Sandy, The larger bags of vermiculite and perlite can be found at many feed stores or masonary supply houses. The smaller bags get a little scarce at Wal-Marts, K-Marts, Home Depots,etc. this time of year in colder areas of the U.S. because it's used for gardening.
For beginner's it's easier to use a plastic bowl sprayed with PAM (baking spray) and work on the inside of the bowl. Working on the outside of a mold/form can be tricky until you get a feel for how wet you need your mix. If it's too wet it will slide down the sides.
Dollar Stores are a great source for plastic ware.
Drink juice! The bottom section of large plastic juice containers can be used for small planters or lantern bodies. The decorative neck section make great finials for lanterns, garden stakes or post tops.
You can buy decorative molds online.
Cardboard boxes lined with dry cleaner bags work great for troughs. Make sure you tape the plastic as flat as you can. The plastic can become too embedded in your hypertufa and make a weak spot. Have a great time. Billie

Making a tufa pot inside a round plastic bowl is really easy. Grease the bowl first just to be safe.

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thanks for all the information....I have been interested in this for a while but have never worked with concrete until our park commision make a concrete/faux stone wall to cover up an ugly retaining wall. It sure was easy. This has got to be easier that throwing pots and I will bet a lot cheaper! that was my last effort at making plant containers. thanks again maureen

I have been a lurker off and on for a long time and would really like to try this. But I have a ? (I'm clueless) when you say mix 1 1 1 1 is that one part of each? And we are haveing a really mild winter if I make it in a shed out of the rain could I do it now?