Monicas Creative Room

Two years ago I wanted to try making a huge concrete ball by using a Pilates ball that I covered with concrete-soaked pieces of terry towels. After covering it with several layers of towels I put on just concrete and tried to get the surface as smooth as possible. I left an area in the bottom uncovered so I could remove the Pilates ball.

At first I didn’t know what to make of the big ball, but after some thoughts, an idea began to emerge. I wanted to make a big face on it!

It is not easy to shape concrete freely, but it is possible! You can just do a little area at a time and let it settle before you put on more and also make sure to turn the ball so that the concrete does not start to slide. It takes layer after layer to build up the shape. The ears where hardest to make.

It’s fun to make free form concrete but it takes much longer time to make a finished item than using moulds. I will also make feet for it. It will be a big head with feet! Ha ha!

Now I had to decide where to put it. The best place was not far from where I made it, only four meters away but then there is a staircase in between. The head is huge and it’s heavy, 65 cm in diameter and it weighs just over 70 kilos. We had to drag it around the whole garden instead!

Now it has been in the garden for two years and the colours has faded a little since I made it, but that is easy to restore. During winters I just put on a small tarpaulin as protection.

Maybe I will make a hat for him also!

/Monica

This winter I’m casting a lot of dahlia flowers to put on iron bars in the garden. I’m casting them using self-levelling compound, not concrete because concrete is too rough for this. The disadvantage of this, however, is that the flowers become more fragile and must be handled more carefully.

I’m using silicone moulds and I have bought several of these to make the process more time efficient. When I have filled and vibrated out the air bubbles, I’m putting in a oiled nylon stick in the wet compound to make the hole for the iron bar.

When the dahlias have hardened I remove the stick and the mould and then I grind the bottom of the flower by just rubbing it on a concrete stone. Fast and easy!

When the dahlia flowers have cured for a week or two it’s time to put on the first colour coat. This has always been a tedious job doing by hand. Now I wanted to try something else. I bought an airbrush and started painting. I also made a small turntable to make it easier to paint, and I also needed a stand for the airbrush. What a upgrade, this is working great! I also made a lifting tool to lift the flower off the turntable when painted.

Because I’m inside when painting I really needed an exhaust for this, airbrushing spreads a lot of paint particles everywhere! I already had a suitable fan for this but needed an adjustable arm and a funnel. After some thinking I got a brilliant idea. I went up to the attic and fetched an old desk lamp we had left over. I cut off the upper part of the lamp-shade and removed the lamp and then rebuilt it to fit the exhaust hose. We made a hole in the wall and mounted the fan. Now I have an exhaust that works great and I can adjust the funnel as I want. I’m so satisfied with this invention!

The next step is to paint metallic colours on them in several layers and shades to get them looking something like this.

When all the paint has dried I will put on some layers of clear varnish before they are finished. This will be made outside during spring because I use a solvent-based spray varnish for this, and it stinks!

/Monica