Recently the girls on our cul-de-sac got together armed with instructions from the internet on How to Make Concrete Leaves, and tackled the project with the enthusiasm of kids playing in the mud. First we made molds using mounds of wet sand and covered them with plastic to keep moist.
Next we selected choice leaves from Rhubarb plants being careful not to tear holes, of course mine tore and I patched the holes with scotch tape.
Placing the leaves artfully over the sand mounds and wearing rubber gloves for protection, we applied a layer of cement patting, shaping and sculpting with our hands. For strength we added a piece of wire mesh and covered it with another layer of cement. We found the mesh was too stiff and kept poking through the wet cement, to cover it completely our concrete got really thick and made really heavy leaves. Next time we are going to use a more flexible and lighter weight wire mesh.
There was much discussion and debate over how to shape the edges of the concrete, we decided to bring it all the way to the edges of the leaves and make it thick so that they wouldn’t break when lifting. We let these big blobs of concrete dry and cure for several days, keeping them wet by lightly sprinkling with water. I’ll share photos of the dried leaves tomorrow.
Gail Niebrugge, Alaska painter
