Kirk, That is really a cool birdbath!!!! Ok now make sure that there is something in there so the birds have something to grip with their feet. Make sure no other critters get in it and break that beautiful piece of art! And bring it in in the winter too! :-) Love, Jules

You can use Dirtex to clean your walls. Sanding with a power sander is fine, but you will find that it gets dusty doing it that way. I may use a pole sander for bulk sanding and then use my orbital sander on stubborn drips or areas that hand sanding just isn't cutting it. If you do power sand all the walls, then cleaning them is probably overkill. The sander is going to remove any contaminants that may affect adhesion of the new paint. Be sure to remove any sanding dust before painting.

Thanks for the kind words, Mags! I have a pistol grip cutter lined up, and trying to decide if I will need a glass grinder for my next project. I am going to try to use larger pieces of glass for my two koi fish that will be on the surface of the fire pit cover. I found something very similar on a round fire pit cover (mine is a semi-circle shape), and I liked how this gal used larger pieces of glass for the koi. So, not sure if I can get smooth curves with a glass cutter and nippers, or, if I would be better off using a grinder to smooth out the pieces. Still so many newbie questions, sigh, lol!! Going down to a couple of glass stores this weekend, to try to buy the glass for the project. I may just bring cash, and leave the credit cards at home. I suspect it may be a bit like a kid in a candy store scenario :-) Patty S.

Thank you for your generous words. I am sorry to take so long in getting back to the forum. Although this may look somewhat complicated, it is anything but. I simply bought the plastic bird bath approx $7.00. It is screwed together in two pieces. Simply remove the screws and you will have the top bowl and the bottom pedestal. I noticed that there is a hole in the bottom of the pedestal and there is a plug for it. I guess you could remove this if you wanted to put a pipe through and make it into a fountain. Anyway I just left the plug in so the cement would not leak out the bottom. I had some scrap iron, (a piece of re-bar) which I wrapped with some chicken wire. This was just for extra strength. I don't really think it needed it but I am no expert so I did it anyway. I then mixed the cement: I used 1 part portland cement to three parts sand since I wanted a nice smooth finish. I started to fill the pedestal about 1/4 of the way, then tapped it to make sure all the little air pockets were filled. I then proceeded to put the metal bar wrapped in chicken wire into the pedestal and added and another 1/4 of cement, tapping it down as before. I added another two 1/4 until it was full. The top was a lot easier. I simply filled the bowl with the cement mixture about 1/2" and placed some chicken wite on top of that. I then put in another 1/2' or so and tapped it down. I pushed the plate into the center of the bowl. While the cement was still wet I pushed the other pieces into place. I let both pieces dry for about 5 days, but it didn't need that long. To open the pedestal I just used a rotary tool and cut along the seams.It worked very well. The top I just turned over and flipped out. The top has a nice smooth flat bottom. The plastic mold had a piece of plastic that acted as a ring that sat over-top of the pedestal. I made a similar concrete rim using two round flat bottom dishes of different sizes. (Envision something that looks like a deep dish pie pan). I poured the cement into the larger one about half full. I then set the smaller one inside that and weighted it down with a heavy stone. I let this cure for a few days and then cemented it to the centre of the bottom of the top. (Does that make sense??) Anyway your bird-bath ends up in two pieces which makes it nice for moving around. For finishing I used a rotary tool with a sanding attachment to smooth edges that may be rough from the pieces of broken glass. Please be sure to do this as I found that as soon as someone looks at it they want to run their fingers across the pieces of glass (Go figure). Anyway, I hope these directions are fairly clear, if they aren't give me a shout on the email. Remember this is just one of my first projects so if anyone sees something that I've done wrong please let me know. I am a big girl. I can take it. :-( Tips: The moulds are definitely re-usable. You will be left with two halfs of the pedestal but that is not really a problem. Just pour the two halfs and cement together. I have made a few by now and I actually did it both ways. I bought another mould since it was so cheap and I also did it using the two halfs. Both worked well. Sand the pedestal and or bowl as soon as you get them out of the mould. It is really easy then. I used a sanding spounge. Worked excellent. Please look under "garden accoutrements" to see a final picture of it painted and set up in our garden. "My three first's in their final setting" I painted mine white to bring out the white in the plate. Thank you for your time. Good Luck!!!