Lawn & Garden - Making Concrete Garden Ornaments
About Making Concrete Garden Ornaments
Overview
Making your own concrete garden ornaments is a tremendous idea to complement your own landscaped gardens and landscape settings to suit any design and decor lay out. The benefits and advantages of creating your own artistic masterpiece is a fun, creative and a cheaper alternate way then purchasing garden ornaments from garden centers. Just think of the fun you will have and best of all its something you can be proud when featured on your property. There are many molding patterns, shapes and designs to choose from that will add so much character and provide visual beauty to the overall garden appearance. The wide range of molding components will vary from simple patterns which are suitable for beginners to more extravagant and unusual patterns which are more difficult and suitable for people who have more experience and confidence with this artistic craft.
There are many ways that home owners can learn step by step information and guidelines on how to make concrete garden ornaments. They specifically suggest what type of equipment, tools, mixing methods, suitable moulds, safety precautions and materials you require. You can consider the following avenues:
- Books
- Dvd's
- Videos
- Magazines
- Web Sites
There are many wonderful books, DVD’s, garden magazines and videos which are available from garden centers that you can purchase. They also include different levels of making concrete garden ornaments that progressively build your skills to that next level. There is a wide variety of different ornaments to make and they include:
- Urns
- Pots
- Planters
- Bird Baths
- Sculptures
- Stepping Stones
- Buddha’s
- Animals
- House Numbers
- Shape Figurines
Concrete Mixing Methods
Making concrete garden ornaments involves measuring amounts of cement, light gravel, sand and water. Garden ornaments will only be of a small size so it important to read carefully about the amount of concrete you will need for the garden ornament mould and this will help choosing the ratios of cement, sand and gravel which will be needed. Water should be slowly applied to the dry mix and stirred around to form smooth consistency. Once the concrete mixture has been formed it should be poured into the garden ornament mould.
The concrete placed in the mould should not form any air bubbles to it, it’s important to tap the mould and shake it slowly to remove the air bubble and continue pouring out the concrete. A newly formed concrete mould should take at least 24 hours to set and a further 48 hours to ensure it is fully dried. When purchasing concrete mixtures especially for making concrete garden ornaments it is important to use a mixture which is able to withstand all types of weather conditions rain, hail or shine. Garden Ornament Moulds
Garden ornaments moulds come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes and designs for home owners to choose from. All garden ornament mould materials are made from durable and sturdy quality products. Garden ornament moulds are made from the following products:
- Latex
- RTV Polyurethane
- PVC Plastic
- Aluminum
Latex moulds are suited to larger garden ornament such as pots or urns. RTV polyurethane moulds are designed for smaller garden ornaments such as; statues, gnomes and wall mounted features. PVC plastics are also suited for smaller garden ornaments. Aluminum moulds are great also for larger garden ornaments such as sculptures.
