Can ya tell I'm bored ??

ednam

And where are the brugmansia leaves? :) That would be cool!

Mike

Hey Edman,
Great job on your rhubar leaves, do you use them for stepping stones?

Ednam, can you post a close up, or higher res image? I'd like to have a look see at them they are really nice, how did you do them?

ok guys ednam is short for Edna Murphree....seems so strange someone calling me ednam LOL

Edna you did a GREAT job..

Those are beautiful. I'd love to know how you do it. I have all kinds of stepping stones and sculptures scattered throughout the garden and something like that would look so nice. Do you do hypertufa also? That's another thing I'd like to try.
Karyn

I would love to try the hypertufa also.. I have read tons on it but not given it a try..
Edna I did do a little casting a few yrs ago .. my broke..LOL I don't think I let them cure long enough.. I use EE's

It is very, very simple and easy. One day soon I will sit down and step by step for you on how I do it. I tried all sorts of methods, then came up with my own. KISS...that was the key... Edna

Those are beauties. Is it simple to do. I am always looking for something for my kids to try. I homeschool and that looks fun. Brandy

Would it be possible to do an elephant ear? ya know 4 footer?

Barry, Hope the extra pic helped. You could make a 4 footer. You would just need a large place to make it. The more cupped you make it the more sand you need. If you made it flat, it would be easy. I put them on a bed of sand that is heaped up, and this is how I get it to cup, the more cupped, the bigger the pile.
Karyn, I will go step by step for everyone one day real soon. It is fun to do. If you by chance have a live leaf, grab it and get it inside, if you want to make one now. To be cont......

Barry

How about this EE, growing at Plants Delight Nursery in NC?

{{gwi:587071}}

Brenda

Oh Edna that is terrific, I really love it. I want to give it a try as well. Waiting on the step by step instructions with baited breath. I am just hoping that our climate won't be too humid.

I have horseradish plants that have big pretty leaves that I'd like to try it with. If the plants are still alive under the snow.
Karyn

Those are beautiful Edna. 5 or 6 years ago I did a plant trade with someone here and she sent me a hosta leaf as an extra that I believe she did in concrete. I just love it.

Great job Edna! I too love that kind of stuff for the garden. At my previous home, I did some stepping stones with waterlilies and they came out great. I believe I have copied instructions on how to do this type of imprints given under the mosaic and ______? site here in GW before.

sounds familiar.........

Hey Brenda! I am growing those big EE> I think that is the Borneo giant or Alocasia Macrorrhiza. Those are babies, I am shooting for 7 ft leaves.
That will take allot of plaster! hehe

Yes, there is a post on the garden web on how to do this. I read it years ago. They make it more difficult to do than it really is. The supplies you will need is simple: Concrete mix, and play sand. I put a piece of plywood on top of an old pool table. You need a sturdy surface. Then cover an area, say about 4'x4' with plastic paper. ( I get this at Lowes for free, they have it on rolls, and you get it to put in your car to keep it clean). I then put my sand in a 5 gallon bucket. maybe a couple of bags of sand. I then pour water on this, just to make it wet, not soupy wet, wet like if you were at the beach, and used it to make a sand castle. I then pour the wet sand into a pile in the middle of the plastic. Kind of smooth it out, and mound it up. Then, get your leaf, lay it on the sand, and see if it fits, if not, rearrange the sand till it does. This is where the shape of the leaf takes place. If you want a flat leaf, leave the sand flat. If you want your leaf to cup up and hold water then mound it up. Basically the leaf will drap over the sand. Give yourself extra room at the bottom of the sand pile so the leaf isn't touching your plastic, an inch or so. This is getting a little long. So far, is everyone with me ? In the mean time save a few of those onion and fruit bags, the ones made out of the stiff mesh. You will need a few strips of this, or maybe some old burlap bag. before we go further, any questions ? Post here or email me. Ednamurphree@msn.com

So the sand underneath should be a minimum of 1" thick, and thicker around the sides if we want it to cup?

Does the leaf lay flat favored side up or the favored side down?

How thick are we expecting the finished product to be?
ex. 1" thick? I doubt it's the sand that dictates how deep/thick it will be. Or should I wait till the rest of the instructions are in and see where I can decide how thick I want it to be?

Oops, you mean minimum 1" on the sides and mounded in the middle to form the cup depth, whereas the leaf would as you say 'drape' down the mound. Just trying to get a mental picture and you're doing swell, something just didn't click in my first time through.

And favored side facing up or are we after the deep veins on the other side of the leaf to be facing up?

Wow, Edna! They're beautiful! At first I thought they were real! LOL
Theresa

When I said concrete above, I meant to say cement. You are getting the idea :) Once you know the leaf fits, and it's cupped like you want it/or flat, you then cover your pile of sand with plastic. Lay your leaf face down. In other words with the back of leaf facing you. Center it up on your sand pile. Make you some strips of burlap or the hard mesh bags, about 5-6 inches long. Have them ready.

If you want it thin, you use a small amount of concrete mix. I will warn you here about thin. You can't take a hugh leaf with great big veins and put a thin coat of concrete. You could do with a small leaf and small veins.

I like all of mine made thick, because I place them around the garden, and also use as bird baths.

Concrete mix : 2 parts cement to 1 part play sand. For a big leaf I use about 15 cups of dry mix. Say 10 cement and 5 sand. This is not exact. And you can't mess it up. More or less is no big deal.

I use a big old plastic container about 20" x 15" and 6-7 inches high. I put the dry sand and concrete in, mix it up well, the add water and stir, and stir. You want it thick enough to be able to pick it up (use gloves, latex) and place on top of the leaf. Can't be runny. I start in the middle of the leaf laying handfuls. And patting it to make it smooth. After you have some mix on the leaf, lay a few stips of the mesh/burlap across the back of it and sort of cover it over with more mix. This keeps it from breaking. Work the concrete mix to about one inch away from the edges.Don't pat it too much, because the mix will want to separate and start weeping. Cover this in plastic and walk away !! After 3-4 days you can slide your hand up under the sand, and flip it over. Get help with this, because it still is vulunerable to breaking. Let it sit some where for a few days. The leaf will still be attached to the concrete, it will dry and you can just pull it off. Make sense ? very difficult to write this instuctions. The best thing to do is make a little one first, and get all your kinks out. Then go to the big one...

sounds good, but I have a question.

Did you paint the green one or did you tint the cement? and do you coat these with anything when they are finished?

Thanks,
Mary

Mary, I took a green latex paint, watered it down and made a wash. Used an old paint brush and put it on. tinting cement is a PIA.. No, I don't coat with anything. You could, but I have never seen the need to.

Thank you Edna, those were perfect instructions. Everybody will have to get the feel of when the cement would 'weep' which I believe you mean breaking up in some way.

How do you get the cement to be trim around the leaves so that only the leaf's edges are there and not slopped over cement? Do we only cover the leaf? And are you advising 1" extra width of sand around the leaf or is it 1" of sand beyond the perimeter of the cement we plan to lay down and remove the excess round the leaf's edges while soft? - Sandy

Picture this. The leaf is laying there. The cement is thick (thick enough so you could roll it into a ball) you put it on the back of the leaf, and work it about an inch short of the edges of the leaf. Stop here. pat it just a little around the edges to smooth it. If you pat too much it weeps..by that I mean water will start to run out of the concrete..LOL Yes, you are only putting concrete on the leaf back and nothing else.