Has anybody used hypertufa to make steps, pavers, benches and other things that experience lots of wear and tear? Do they hold up over the years? If not hypertufa, does anyone have an alternate material, that could be hand formed and produced on site, without a kiln? Would cob work for these purposes? Another question: how about hypertufa as a material to coat/surface/cover a retaining wall (I'm not too sure what would be under the hypertufa, acting as the retaining part of the wall-- since our soil here is almost pure clay, maybe I could just slope the wall enough so it could stand on its own. For instance, could I just lay hardware cloth on the surface of the sloping wall of clay and cover it with a thick layer of hypertufa, or would cob be a better chice? Living on a very sloping site, we need retaining walls of all heights, 1', 2', 3' , 4' high, in order to create terraced, level garden beds. I've built lots of walls out of stone, but as I get older, those rocks seem to be getting heavier...I need lighter weight materials...all suggestions welcome. Thanks. Lisa Devon

I had a request for my formula for papercrete so thought I'd post a copy here just in case it might be of help to someone. Cement and Paper Fiber Sculpting Materials Portland Cement (NOT a concrete mix just the cement powder) Paper Fibre (I buy the paper insultation you can get from Lowes. It is already shredded. You can take newspaper and shred it, soak it, mush it more but this saves a lot of work). Bucket of joint compound Mixture You have to experiment here to get it to the point it feels like clay. Off hand I'd say 2 parts paper fiber to 2 parts paper cement. I then just put in a handful of joint compound, add water and mix by hand. If it doesn't feel like clay I add more cement and more joint compound. You can do 3 parts paper to 1 part cement if you just want bulk and are not concerned about strength. The higher the paper fibre the longer it will take to dry. I just do this in a bucket. I've not tried a large scale mixing because a) you can get tired out pretty easily and then you are wasting the rest and b) I don't know if it would dry out too quickly. IMPORTANT!: Wear a mask and rubber gloves. Cement dust easily goes into the air and it is not a good idea to breathe it. Also, I wear thin rubber gloves. I much prefer no gloves as I like to feel my subject but the reality is that cement will suck all the moisture out of your hands. I've been asked if one can add sand. I've only tried this once. It makes the mixture a lot less claylike and takes longer to dry and will slump easier, but you can do it. The plus side is likely added strength. Armature I try to avoid anything that will rust as an armature because I just don't know if the paper fibres will wick water all the way through the sculpture. If it does it could cause rust on the armature thus splitting the sculpture. This may not happen at all. I would say though if using an iron armature to make sure to seal it with paint BEFORE applying the cement. This is probably a good idea with any type of cement mixture in any case. My armatures are made from styrofoam, pvc piping and aluminum piping. If it is a "sqaut" figure, meaning triangular or a column type figure I just use styrofoam but it won't have the stength necessary for limbs. So for my Greenman figure I used pvc piping. My gargoyles though have all just been styrofoam, including the one with wings. The wings were just the blue styrofoam sheeting you get for siding. The papercrete adds amazing strength. The Process BUILD A GOOD ARMATURE! Make sure that it is to the proportions you want before applying cement. I've had to do some chiseling because I didn't take into account the extra width added by the cement and threw a piece out of proportion. I know it's common sense but I don't always have common sense so thought I'd give the warning in case there is someone else like me out there. I coat the armature from the bottom up, when it is completely covered with one layer I let it set for a day IF it has things like "legs", such as with the greenman. I needed the strength there in the legs before I could build up the "musculature" with more cement. This technique worked great! Once you can start adding "muscles", and bulking up the figure you pretty quickly learn if you are adding too much at once so it slumps. Be patient. My experience with papercrete is that you can add additional layers after a piece is dry and it holds nicely. I've even gone back months later and done more work on a piece. I know this isn't conventional wisdom but it works for me. Make sure and cover the bottom of the armature as well with cement. You don't want bugs getting up inside your armature. It is said that carpenter ants love styrofoam. How long does it last? Short answer. I don't know. Papercrete houses have mostly been built in arid areas. And they advise not sealing the surface of a house too much so it can breathe... BUT you don't have to worry about that for a sculpture so SEAL AWAY. I use paint and polyurethane. I have one sculpture that has sat unsealed for at least one winter. He has minor surface crackling but no stuctural damage. I think that my sculptures will last my lifetime, but I don't know. Still, do any of us know how long our art will last outdoors anyway? When I sculpt a piece I do try to think about how water might pool on it and try to make it so water will run off as much as possible. Ice in crevices can be deadly to cement pieces. But paper fibres give a lot of strength to a piece. I am always amazed how I can coat a piece of styrofoam with this mixture and once it is dry I can stand on it with no damage. Painting For my Greenman piece I used a sponge to paint with. This makes sure the figure gets well covered. I did an enamel base and then added acrylics for highlights. I used spray polyurethane but want to try the kind from a can sometime. You don't have to paint of course but I still think sealing is a good idea with polyurethane or something else. Here is a link that might be useful: Jonathan's Sculpture Page

August 3rd 2009. This seedling has exceptional characteristics and since I had no tape I guessed it to be 17 feet tall. My father is going to go measure it as I do not live close to it. You'll see the bark is normal red below and at all hte upper branches off of the main trunk there is a black blotch and the entire branches have curling/black tones/bark. The last photos show the very first year where the bark has had 2 years to age. It's really something. I think it has characteristics (I'll watch it for another five or ten years) to become cultivar material. Dax

Sorry guys, I left out a "g"! I'll try a link: stampingforum.com When you get there, see where it says "Technique of the Month", then "TOM May: Iridescent Background". I'll try to include a shortcut, below. Where is the card with tombow markers? And btw, what are tombow markers? I'm always hearing about them but never looked into it... Here is a link that might be useful: stamping forum iridescent card examples