Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver, BC

My absence of posts from my garden are in no way reflective of lack of activity there, since I've been spending a lot of time weeding and pruning and hauling away wheelbarrows of plant material every week.  But I guess I've been getting lazy with not carrying the camera with me into the yard.

Today I went with my 13 year old to Queen Elizabeth Park, and was also too lazy to carry my camera, mainly since I knew I had my mobile phone camera anyhow.  I ended up taking a number of photos, because there was just so much beauty there.  I hope I convey some of it with my sample of photos here.

The beautiful dome roof of the Bloedel Conservatory, which apparently was built in 1969, is under repairs (although the conservatory remains open for visitors), so in the meantime there is this funny tent-like scaffolding rising high above the dome.

As you may have noticed, the Gunnera manicata (which as a kid I used to think was a giant rhubarb!) is featured in many of my photos.  This plant is the highlight of the park, in my opinion, and is now also a much-loved plant in my garden, too.

Another much-loved plant in my yard, the Davidii involucrata (dove or handkerchief) tree, was also inspired by the grand old tree at Queen Elizabeth Park.  Mine is still years away from blooming, but the QE tree not only blooms but is full of fruits/nuts at this time of year.  The gardeners had removed a branch, and I pinched off this piece, which shows the beautifully textured leaves and the nuts.  (If you follow my ceramics blog, you'll soon see some pieces which were inspired and created from the Davidii leaves.  The first one is #28 of this set, and I have two more pieces in progress.)

Concrete Leaf Catastrophe

My visions of a beautiful concrete Gunnera leaf for my garden have been shattered into pieces.  Quite a number of pieces, as you can see here:

Although from this angle, it looks like there is still some potential for an artistic creation:

Perhaps a sculpture of a decaying Gunnera leaf, crumbled into pieces on the soil?

The dark green parts are where I still need to peel away the Gunnera leaf to reveal the concrete cast below.  I had my husband flip the leaf for me Saturday afternoon, and I didn't have time to finish this work, since we were packing and leaving the next morning.

The imprint itself worked out quite well, with nice strong details of the veining in the leaf (again, the dark areas are where I still need to remove the leaf):

So what did I do wrong?

The biggest mistake was to start with too big of a leaf.  Not only did I run out of materials (I think it should have been thicker, especially on the edges), but I created my own monster.  At about 100 pounds, I am not able to handle and move it myself.  Even the fragments I have now are a struggle.  If it were smaller, I likely would have been able to support the leaf while trying to flip it, and then allow it to continue to cure.  But as soon as my husband starting lifting the beast, it was cracking under its own weight.

If I make another attempt, it will be with a smaller leaf.  Something suitable for an ornamental stepping stone in the garden.  Then if all goes well, I could work my way toward a larger bird bath or focal point in the garden.

In the meantime, I will see what I can salvage of the Gunnera, and keep working on it, to learn a bit more about the process.  If I can, I would like to finish pieces of it, and try painting them before Winter hits, so I can learn how the paints survive the Winter.

Concrete Leaf Casting : First Attempt

Somewhere in the last couple of years, I encountered a post about concrete leaf casting, and haven't been able to shake the idea out of my head since then.  I was quite interested to try it last summer, and read several posts about how it's done, and the ingredients used.  I also am fortunate enough to have a Gunnera plant in my garden, which seems to be getting bigger leaves every year, and which would make an awesome concrete leaf, such as this amazing creation by Little and Lewis on Bainbridge Island, WA:

Even if mine were half as awesome, that would still be very amazing.  So with this dream simmering in my head for a couple years, and the recent realization that Fall is around the corner, and that the cooler temperatures would be suitable for such a project, I decided to finally take the plunge, and try it out.

I don't know how to post yet, since I won't really know for a couple of days whether it worked or not.  It felt like a disaster almost every step along the way, but I am still hopeful that it worked out, and will be as amazing as I have dreamed.  So I will post what I did and learned so far, and then once I know, I will post the results, and perhaps this post will be a useful lesson in either what to do or what not to do.

Challenge : Find the materials.  Most "recipes" for concrete leaf castings were something like : 1 part Portland cement, 3 parts sand, and some part water and/or bonding/fortifying agent.  But as I suspected, the brands and products mentioned were not available locally, so I did some investigating on the Home Depot web site, and went to the store with various product descriptions in my hand, hoping to finalize the decision. I came away with two bags I couldn't lift : 88 lb of Portland cement, and 80 lb of jointing sand.  I had investigated various mixes, but all included some gravel in the mix.  I wanted mine to be a fine mixture, so I chose to mix it myself, and also chose the finer jointing sand rather than construction sand.

The Home Depot store didn't carry the acrylic based bonding agent which I was seeking, but I persisted, and phoned the number on the web site, and asked them to track down the product, which was a Stone Mason "Acryli Bond" liquid.  Sure enough, we found a store not too far away which carried it, and I was able to pick up a 4 L (1 gallon) bottle.

Challenge : Dust masks.  They were advised for the mixing of the Portland cement, which is a fine powder.  Good thing I bought a 3-pack, so my son & daughter had fun trying them out.  Since I couldn't wear mine.  I felt like I was being suffocated, it was too hot, and my glasses steamed up when I breathed.  So after trying a few times to use my mask, I gave up on it, and just held my breath when scooping the cement, and tried to mix carefully.  I pre-wet all the sand, so at least it was not dusty at all.

Here's my daughter on the porch of our shed, where I was setting up the Gunnera leaf on plastic, and mixing up my sand and cement in the wheelbarrow.  The wheelbarrow was a good idea.  I wouldn't have managed with the deeper bucket I had originally planned.  And it washed up really well afterward.

Mistake : While the porch was a great idea since it is covered to provide protection from sun or rain, and the leaf could be left there (since I can access through the one door) for a number of days, it was not at a good height for my back.  Very quickly I found that my back was very sore bending over to work on it.  The wheelbarrow too was too low, but I managed okay by kneeling beside it.  The other problem was that it was hard to reach the back part of the leaf.  Access from all sides would have been much better, such as on a sturdy old table.

Challenge : The concept was to mound of the sand to support the upside-down leaf, so when it was done, it would be a naturally cupped shape.  But the Gunnera leaf I chose was quite cupped, and the amount of sand I would have required would have been more than half of my 80 lb bag!

My solution was to use instead some pots (they were nearby) to support the leaf, and use some sand sparingly in between.  There were a few places the support was a bit light, but since the Gunnera was a very stiff and strong leaf, I'm hoping it was adequate.  We'll find out when we flip it over, and find out if I had ripped or distorted the leaf too badly.

Mistake / challenge : Choose a small leaf to start.  I didn't.  I didn't feel that I had time for that.  And I suspected that if I tried a smaller leaf, I would find so many challenges that even if it turned out okay, I may not be "up" to the big project, knowing what I was truly walking into.  Perhaps that's true.  But it would have been comforting to know what I was doing, rather than feeling on the edge of disaster through the whole process.

I had read to apply a wetter layer first, and work it into the small wrinkles and crevices in the leaf, before applying the thicker concrete.  This seemed to be a very good idea.  Especially since the sharp slope of the leaf (a flatter one would have been better!) made the concrete slide quickly off.  So being able to work a thinner layer in would prevent some of the air bubbles I'm sure I would have had otherwise.

Challenge : Reinforcement.  This photo doesn't show it well (click for a larger view, perhaps it will show better), but I used 4 pieces of 1" chicken wire to reinforce the leaf, once a thin layer of concrete was applied.  The challenge was that it was difficult to bend it into a shape that matched the deep ridges and valleys of the leaf.  If I didn't make it snug enough, I couldn't cover it in concrete, which would result in chicken wire showing at the back.  If I pressed it in too far, the sharp edges broke through the leaf, possibly resulting in wires sticking out the front of the leaf.  So I struggled for a long time with this step, with my husband trying to help with cutting and bending also (I had called for his help when I started the concrete and realized I forgot the roll of chicken wire in the garage).

Then I spread the concrete over top, using a small metal coffee can to scoop it from the wheelbarrow.

Challenge : Unhelpful help.  If you have any "helpers" nearby, best to communicate with them about what you are doing, and how they can help.  Sadly, when I didn't notice, my husband added more water to the wheelbarrow to "help" me.  But I wasn't using water at that point, I was using the Acryli Bond liquid.  And mixing the sand and cement first then adding liquid, was a better order (so the cement wouldn't clump up right away).  I should have just scooped as much water back out as possible, but I decided to try to add more cement and sand to it, to get the consistency right.  I ended up finishing up my whole bag of sand, adding more cement, and finally got it to a workable, although still too runny, state.  Then I added some more Acryli Bond also, to make sure it would be strong enough to hold the fine edges.

Here is the finished product, about 2 1/2 hours after I started out.  I finally managed to cover the chicken wire, and get a reasonable layer of concrete all around the leaf.  It kept running down into the valleys, and I needed to work it back up onto the ridges.  I think the finished thickness was somewhere between 1/2" to 1" thick, but since I used up the 80 lb bag of sand (other than the part I had laid underneath), and maybe 30 lb of cement, then I guess the whole thing will be over 100 lb to lift!!  Wow, I guess I thought about that, but the reality had not sunk in...  I will need help to lift & flip it over!

I understand the concrete cures better when kept moist, so I flipped up and laid plastic on it.  Today I visited it.  I have no idea how to tell if it's finished setting, so I may give it a couple of days.  I sprayed it with water, and left it sleeping inside its plastic blankets.

Who knows what monster - or artistic wonder - lies sleeping there?  I will know in a couple of days, when it is flipped over, and the leaf peeled off.

[Aug 31 : See result, which was not as I hoped].