European Gardening: Rhubarb leaf bird bath, 1 by bonitin

bonitin wrote:
Hi Pat,

It was not a rhubarb leaf, but one of the Fatsia japonica.
I've also done some with the leaves of the fig tree and of Ligularia dentata. In fact any leaves with pronounced nerves on the backside will make a nice imprint. These are leaves I have available in my garden.

I will explain you the process in how I made it;

First you put a sheet of plastic on the floor, on top of that you make a circle with a large pair of compasses, (if you don't have such a large one you can use a felt pen with a thread tied on it and make a circle by holding down the end of the thread in the centre and drawing the circle around it) or with whatever is round, like f.ex. a large bowl in the size you want it to be.

Then you make a shallow hill in humid sand, firm it with a shovel and/or hands and make the surface smooth. That goes well when the sand is bit humid.

On top of the hill you place the leaf or leaves with the underside up.

On top of that you start putting a first layer ( approx. 2 cm thick)of cement all over the hill and leaf and extend it 5 or more cm along the borders of the hill.(you can take that in account when deciding about the size you want it).
Then you push some chicken wire in that first layer (that is needed to make it winter proof). On top of that you add a second layer and make it all smooth.

When hardend in about 2 or 3 days, you carefully turn it upside down, brush away the sand inside and peel off the leaf.
The edges will be a bit rough so you sandpaper them to make them smooth. In the first week it should still be handled carefull because the cement hasn't reached it full strenght yet.

Cement preparation:

I usely use white cement and the proportion are :

1 part white cement
1 part yellow sand (serves as a natural colouring)
1 part white sand
+ Compactuna, that makes the cement easier to mold and makes it more weather resistant and stronger.

You can of course also use the normal gray cement.