Things Needed
Decorative birdbaths create an eye - catching garden feature of speech ; however , this landscape social structure come at a high price when purchased at garden stores . Make your own elephant spike leaf cast birdbath to create a garden accent from supplies available at most computer hardware stores . You will have the expiation of design a garden component from plant arise in your flowerbed and be able to make several birdbaths for the price of one at a specialisation garden shop .
Make Pedestal
Step 1
Cut the 8 - inch tube to the hope height for the birdbath . Cut a 2 - inch halo from the remnant vacuum tube for role in make an attachment point on the leaf . The composition board tube can be the manikin used to make terrace footings .
Step 2
Mix concrete to fill the electron tube so it is the consistency of pud . Use a concrete or cementum stepping - gemstone for the bottom surface , and place a level of plastic wrapper to obtain the concrete inside the tube .
Step 3
pelt the concrete mixture into the vacuum tube to the top . Have another somebody carry the thermionic tube to prevent it from moving or fall over while pouring . Place a stepping - Oliver Stone on top of the tube to burden the electron tube and keep the concrete from leaking out the bottom .
Step 4
Let the tube dry for a minimum of 48 hour . snap the cardboard tube from the concrete and discard . Let the concrete pedestal cure for at least one hebdomad before hold paint or glaze .
Step 5
give a concrete sealer prior to setting the footstall in the garden for exercise .
Make Birdbath
Find a large , flat container to make the mold for the elephant ear puke . pick out a container that is some 2 human foot wide and 4 understructure long . fill up the bottom of the container mold with 4 inches of sand .
Form the sand so it mounds in the center to the desired profoundness of the finished birdbath . address the sand mound with a layer of moldable wrap . prefer a foliage from the elephant ear industrial plant that has no rips or holes , and cut it from the plant so there is a 2 - inch distance of radical attached to the leafage . Set the leaf onto the plastic wrap - covered sand mound so the shopping mall of the leaf is over the high-pitched point of the mound .
Mix the concrete in a bucket , making enough to complete the elephant ear tramp . Spray a layer of cooking spraying over the top of the leaf to limit sticking when the cement dries . Spread the cement mixture over the elephant ear folio by placing a pocket-size amount in the center of the leaf and fan out it toward the sharpness .
Apply enough cementum so the mall of the folio has a 3/4 - column inch layer that tapers to 1/4 - in towards the edges . put the 2 - in ring from the pedestal form in the center of the thickest area . Form fistful of cementum around the outside of the ring , and smoothen it to create a sass to fix the leaf on top of the pedestal .
Let the cement prohibitionist for 48 hours before pulling the casting out of the mold . Remove the composition board ring and clean off the leaf residual . allow the leaf birdbath cure for one week , and then apply blusher or glaze to the elephant ear birdbath if hope . enforce a concrete sealant to the leaf cast before replete with water supply in the garden .
Tip
supply mortar colorant to the concrete after mixing will make a slanted birdbath that does not require painting when finish up . Wear eye aegis and synthetic rubber gloves when working with the concrete .
