Japanese lantern made of Hypertufa
Hello,
Just wanted to say thanks for the help making my first Hypertufa project a successful one and share my progress. Maybe it can help someone else in the future.
So this project started because I wanted a Japanese lantern in my garden but once I found out you can't find one for under $1000, at least the size I wanted, I decided to try making my own. At that point I never heard of hypertufa and was going to use concrete. Once I started researching I found out about hypertufa and then this forum. Anyway, I learned a lot here and decided on what I thought was a good recipe, adding my own touch of course and couldn't be happier!
The mix:
1 part peat moss
1 part perlite
1 part portland cement
1 part black blast(looks like black sand)
1/3 concrete bonding additive
and a handful of synthetic fiber mesh for the larger pieces that I thought could use the extra strength, base & top
So far it seems to be working out as the perfect mix I was looking for. I wanted strong, heavy and to look like granite stone. So far it seems strong, it is very heavy but not quite as bad as concrete and the finished look is pretty nice in my opinion, of course it doesn't look exactly like granite but way more interesting than concrete.
I started simple, just tried the little round topper piece to make sure the mix was good and see what I was getting myself into. I just used a medium size bowl, filled it about 1 1/2" and let it set for a day. Popped it out and was pretty dissapointed with the look. Then I found out the trick, electric drill with a hard wire bruch bit. Sanded down all the dull finish and got a pretty nice looking spotty with black specks and little craters finish. Very cool stuff, but a lot more work than I thought.
Next I started making molds for all the other pieces, most out of wood but had to get creative for a few, grill cover, large planter with carved styrofoam mold and so on. I have everything made except the top which I'm still designing but wanted to share my progress so far. I have a ton of pics but I'm not sure how many I can post. I'll try a few to start and add more later including a finished product eventually.
If you have any questions let me know.
Lou
Comments (39)
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Carving a Japanese lantern
Comments (6)using your kitty litter container sounds good. I have used different plastic type containers, I line mine with a plastic bag first. For the hole or holes I use a 1/2"-3/4" thick closed cell foam (not sure that is really what it is called) cut to the shape that I want the opening to be, then using eye screws I screw through the plastic container, and position the foam.One screw holds the foam in place. I can then pack my tufa mix in the bottom and up the sides to the foam, then in between and over the top of the foam. The foam acts as sort of a gage for how thick I want the lantern to be. At some point I often put a smaller plastic bag covered container (as tall as the lantern will be) in the opening, so that I will retain a more uniform void. Continue up the side an inch or more. Then place sand in the inside container, just to hold it in place. Cover with plastic, for a day or more. To release it, unscrew the eyescrews. Remove the center container. Gently wiggle the entire lantern out with the plastic, and then roll the plastic down. Depending on how soon you released it you will be able to rough up the surface a bit if that is your preference. Gently push the foam out, I can reuse my foam pieces. I also do some clean up carving of the spaces at this time with an old serrated knife. Hope that made sense, Happy casting, Dena...See MoreNew to Papercrete, have made many hypertufa's ???
Comments (7)Hi, I've done papercrete , yes it's as dureable as the tufa. Because it absorbs so much water in the paper you do have to leave it to dry in a dry place, and I would seal it after. I found it harder to mix together and would say a mixer would make it easier than by hand. Why are you wanting to use this mix, are you trying to go thinner walls or lighter pots? We met at the Nanoose plant swap in the fall, I've been working on my first spring project building a wire armiture for a water feature. The same technique I used for the easter island head I think you liked. You are welcome to come by and learn that technique if you like. Cheers Cindy...See MoreMolds used for Hypertufa Lantern
Comments (7)Hi Mike, Nice to find this forum is still a live! For the inside of the lanterns we (hubby & I)made we used a piece of bendable aluminum? duct taped together for size, I think it's also called 'flashing' don't know for sure and DH isn't here for me to ask; also a smooth round plastic bottle filled with sand work good. For the windows a block of styrofoam works great, if you find this might move when packing in the mix you can screw the foam into the inner mold. Hope this helps! Wendy...See MoreWhat's this lantern made of?
Comments (8)Saw this after a lurk around. I worked in the epoxy resin industry for 15 years and could more or less guarantee that itÂs probably cast in a rubber mould from an epoxy resin mortar/grout or similar. I tried a similar technique before I discovered my granite kerbstones. Many resins can also be used to modify a cement mix as well. You get this characteristic resin rich surface layer. These are quite common in the UK as garden ornaments, along with Buddahs, dragons and the like in lurid reds and greens usually and they do look very artificial. If the basic shape is desireable, items like this can be sanded to "key" the surface, varnished, dashed to excess with a suitable mix of clean kiln dried sands while still wet then allowed to dry to give a more natural finish. Waterproof, cement based tile adhesive/grout stippled onto the abraded surface would might work as well to "natural up the finish"...See Morerufretic
11 years agoPot used for main base/legs covered with plastic and rebar positioned for extra strength.
rufretic
11 years agoMain base/legs with styrofoam insert, filled and now the long wait to see how it turned out
rufretic
11 years agoThe topers are the only pieces to have fully dried yet so they are much lighter and give you a better idea of the final color. I tried to get a close up so you can see the finished color and detail/texture and maybe see how the black blast adds a nice black sparkle, not sure if you can make it ou in the picture though. This is the last pic for now but I'll follow up with the main top and finished product when I'm done.
rufretic
11 years agoOne more just to give you an idea where I'm going with this, just a quick mock up of some of the pieces I have done so far.
rufretic
11 years agoThe mold for the main base worked pretty well, it's a little small compared to the rest of the lantern but I couldn't find any container larger that had the shape I wanted.
Now I just have to pour the top.
karmicforager
11 years agorufretic
11 years agorufretic
11 years agoHere is the mold I built for the top, of course it's not finished in this pic but gives you an idea how I made it.
rufretic
11 years agoHere is the top with about two hours of grinding done. It got a little faster as it went but took way too long, least fun part of the project :-(
rufretic
11 years agoHere is the bonded windows, it shows how I added rebar at each corner to help support the weight of the top piece. I hope it's strong enough!
rufretic
11 years agoThis picture shows the size of the top and a can for overall size, it's going to be pretty large about 40" tall I think.
rufretic
11 years agoI got the top on but it looks a little bulky. I might try to grind it down a little to make it a little thinner. I'll post a new pic if I do.
oldgraymare
11 years agorufretic
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10 years agorufretic
10 years agoOk, got some pics even though it's already dark, just used the flash. You'll have to excuse all the white stuff, we just got our first snow :-)
This first one would have been my favorite but I jacked up the main lantern peice when I was trying to drill out the wood blocks used for the windows. I used a charcoal dye in the mix, otherwise it's the same. Once I finish drilling out the wood blocks, I will resurface where the glue marks are from when I had to glue it all back together but for now I'm going to just let it sit outside until spring. Once that's fixed it might still turn out pretty cool.
rufretic
10 years agoThis one is the same as the original mix. It's just a simple little guy. No special molds just bowls you can find around the house, anyone could make it. I just carved a peice of styrofoam for the window and stuck it in the bowl for the center peice. The legs are just hand molded in a bowl, just add a little less water for that mix so you can shape it. This one was made for my mother in law but now I kind of like it lol.
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rufreticOriginal Author