Concrete Leaf Casting Recipe
Cover the leaf with plastic wrap.
Concrete leaf casting recipe. Easy instructions on casting leaves into concrete with pictures and ideas. 1 part portland cement 3 parts sand and some part water and or bonding fortifying agent. Roberta walked us through the steps involved in making the concrete leaves including mixing the concrete adding colorant mounding sand choosing leaves working with the underside of the leaf building up the concrete smoothing the bottom with a brush and adding a copper fitting if we wanted to put our cast leaf on a copper pipe pedestal for a raised bird bath or feeder. Place your leaf vein side up on the plastic.
Mix your concrete premix is fine and press concrete over. Lay the chosen leaf face down back side of leaf should be up 5. Place leaf facedown on mound of sand. Concrete leaf casting step 1.
Most recipes for concrete leaf castings were something like. A sand concrete mix is made fairly liquid and then brushed on a large leaf with a paint brush. A layer of hardware mesh is added to help keep the form reinforced mentions that drywall mesh tape can be used too. Choose a leaf with deep visibly defined veins pour the concrete mix on a large tray or baking sheet.
Make a mixture of one part portland cement to one part sand. Make the mound larger than the leaf. Spray sand with water then make a mound of damp sand in the middle of. Mound concrete in the center of the leaf then smooth it carefully to the outer edges of the leaf adding more concrete as needed.
Add water until mixture is the consistency of thick mud. Steps fill a plastic bin with several inches of sand. Cover the sand mold with plastic. Cut chicken wire the approximate shape and size of your leaf.
On your table build a sand mound about the size and shape of the leaf you ve chosen. I wondered why the surface was all pebbly on the finished project and can now see why after viewing these photos i wanted this finished product to be something of a bowl shape so mounded the moist sand on the base before placing the leaf upside down upon it. Select a leaf with a nice shape and free of holes and tears. Brush the sand off of the leaf before adding the leaf casting mix.