I remember years and years ago watching Martha Stewart make hypertufa on TV. I loved the idea & knew one day I’d have to try it myself.

And, I have. A number of times. My preferred masterpieces are mushrooms, but the possibilities are endless as to what you could create.

The process of making hypertufa yard art is a bit time consuming, but fairly simple and so worth it. I’ve had some of my pieces for 5 years now and they have held up to all the elements – kids, critters, freezing temps & snow.

CREATING HYPERTUFA YARD ART

This photo is from my very first hypertufa batch back in 2010. I used all sorts of different containers for the mushroom pieces. Usually I used some kind of bowl shape for the head of the mushroom and a cup for the stem. I was really nervous about the hypertufa sticking to the bowl molds, so I lined them with garbage bags we had lying around. Cooking spray would have also worked. However, looking back, I’d use the bags again because I like the texture it gave the mushrooms.

The nails sticking out of the hypertufa in the cups were meant to stick in the ground to hold the mushrooms in place. Really, they’re just a joke. Itty bitty nails do not help support the mushrooms. Rebar works much better.

After making all the pieces, I covered them with plastic and let them sit for a day or two.

A different batch looked like this. Same idea as the first, but I added chunks of rebar to the stems. This worked better than the nails, but longer pieces of rebar work even better.

I also rounded the bottoms of the mushroom heads.

ATTACHING THE MUSHROOM PIECES

After letting the pieces sit for a day or two to cure a little, I take them out of their molds.

I attach the head part to a stem piece by mixing more hypertufa and using it as glue. I tend to make this mix more cement style than hypertufa, meaning less peat moss and vermiculite.

CURING

After putting the mushroom pieces together, I mist them and cover them in plastic. And then comes the hard part. Waiting. Hypertufa needs to cure for about a month. Occasionally, I give the mushrooms a mist. But, that’s it. They are pretty much left alone in our garage until the month is up.

MUSHROOM VARIETIES

My mushrooms are all similar, however I do try to add a hint of variety.

I have tried adding liquid cement coloring to the mix for colored mushrooms. I don’t love it. I don’t hate. It worked perfectly fine. I’m just not a fan of the particular color.

Notice the longer rebar. This is the ideal length to keep the mushrooms in place.

Yet another variety. These were made the same way as my other mushrooms. But, on the day I made hypertufa to glue the pieces together I also added hypertufa mix around the head and stem for a slightly different look.

To give the mushrooms an aged appearance, I read you can make a moss/yogurt smoothie and apply it to your hypertufa to help promote moss growth. I was feeling lazy, so I didn’t bother blending it. I just mixed some moss in with the yogurt. I probably should have taken the time to do it correctly.

In my web research I found that adding beer can also promote moss growth. I had a beer in the fridge, so I dumped it on a mushroom. If I didn’t have Farmer John convinced that I was a kook before, I sure did when he walked by seeing me dump a beer on cement – on purpose.

July 2015 Update: Neither of these moss enhancing tricks worked for me. Boo!

Using outdoor paint, a few mushrooms received a makeover. I love their bright colors. However, Farmer John refers to them as my psychedelic mushrooms.

MORE WITH HYPERTUFA

The fun thing about hypertufa is making whatever you can come up with. Primarily I make mushrooms, but occasionally I make some sort of container.

Some birds and bugs like slices of fruits. So, I added a hypertufa plate on top of a flatter topped mushroom.

I have also made planters. This particular one was made from the bottom part of a plastic clam shell container. The succulents have been in there for years and continue to thrive.

I love the wonky cement faces I see in gardens. They have such character. So, I tried making my own. They’re not the best work I’ve ever done, but honestly I’m not sure how I would have done it differently. They were a bit of a challenge for me.

To make the faces I smooshed hypertufa mix around the black potting container, then added and subtracted hypertufa as needed for eyes, nose, mouth and ears.

I had planned to take out the plastic pots after the hypertufa cured. But, they don’t seem to want to come out. So, I guess they’ll stay.

A mushroom, wonky face container and pallet sign living together in our Bird Village.

Have you given hypertufa a try? What is your favorite item to create?

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At my request, Farmer John brought home a truck bed & trailer full of pallets & crates! I had been oogling over all the fabulous ideas crafty people had been creating out of recycled wood. I even made a pinterest board dedicated to pallet projects.

DISASSEMBLING THE PALLETS

CREATIONS

SIGNS
My favorite way to use the pallet wood is painting signs.

POTATO &ONION STORAGE BINS
John built a couple bins to hold potatoes & onions from our garden.

KIDS PLAY HOUSE
The bottom of our play structure is open, so we are going to enclose it to create a play house area. One out of 4 walls is complete so far. It’s not much of a play house, yet. But, the one wall makes a great backdrop for photos.

MORE SIGNAGE
A couple other signs I’ve made are a sign to take with me when I go to chicken swaps & shows, and also garden bed labels. They are actually made from repurposed bender board. But, they could just as easily be made from pallet wood.

Except for the pieces saved for the play house, we have used up nearly all of the wood. One day I would like to get another load of pallets to make more signs & also build an outdoor kitchen.

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To add a little character to our farm, I painted signs using collected pallet wood.

PREPARATION

After collecting the wood, we had to disassemble it, taking out nails & staples. I will admit, that was not my favorite part of the project.

Next was the fun part, though, getting creative & figuring out the types of signs I wanted to make.

Using my computer, I designed the sign text & printed it. I traced right over the printed text, which left a slight mark on the pallet wood. It wasn’t perfect. In some places I had to wing it & hope for the best.

PAINTING THE SIGNS

I painted the signs using DecoArt Patio Paint & Behr Indoor/Outdoor Primer & Paint. Then, each sign got a coat or two of Thompson’s Waterseal. I don’t know how long the signs will last. But, I’ve had many of them outside for almost exactly one year & they still look great.
Update: The signs are going on their second year & look just fine. I should probably wash them, though, and apply a new coat of waterseal.

SOME OF OUR SIGNS

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Years ago, when I made my first hypertufa & cement projects, I built a bench. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a bench. I’ve always thought it was boring, but didn’t know how to fix it.

At some point I decided to try mosaic. I had never mosaiced anything & this bench was a good place to learn. It’s not as if I could really make the bench look worse than it already did, so I gave mosaic a try.

BENCH BEGINNING

WORK IN PROGRESS

I came up with a design for the mosaic & ordered tiles from Mosaic Art Supply.

Next, I drew the design on the cement using pencil & layed out the basic areas of each color.

Section by section, I applied mortar and placed the tiles. This was my first ever mosaic. So, I’m not sure I mortared the tiles in the best order. But, it seemed to work.

COMPLETED MOSAIC BENCH SEAT

Here is the finished bench seat complete with grout. I feel like I need to clean up around the edges a bit, but overall I’m happy with the way it turned out.

I can now say I have created a mosaic. And, I have leftover tiles, so I will get to mosaic again. Oh, the possibilities.

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A couple weeks ago my oldest son & I took a quick trip to Seattle. I let him pick a couple places he wanted to see & I chose a couple. First on my list was seeing Chihuly Garden & Glass. It was a-ma-zing! There’s a good reason this guy is world famous.

A peek at his beautiful work in the Exhibition Hall.

The glass pieces in the Exhibition Hall were exceptional, but in this post I’m to showcasing The Garden.

As a transition from the inside galleries to the garden outside is a large, open Glasshouse. Inisde features one huge sculpture suspended above.

Left: Location. Location. Location. Chihuly’s Garden is located at the foot of the Space Needle.
Right: Many spaghetti shaped glass pieces create Chihuly’s Sun.

The Garden

Another angle of the same garden area, with Sonic Bloom from the Pacific Science Center in the background. Sonic Bloom is not part of the Chihuly Garden, but it is fabulously awesome, as well.  I was in awe walking by the huge solar powered, singing flowers.

The color. Oh, the color!
My mind was on sensory overload taking in all the beautiful ways color was used in The Garden.

Blue. Not just one shade or tint of blue, but variations.

Top: Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’

Top: I’m going to be honest. The big red sculpture was my least favorite in the garden. Everything else I loved. This just didn’t do anything for me.
Bottom Right: Purples & chartreuse

I loved this.
The curvy orange glass in front, the straight spikey blue reeds in back & purple ornamental onion spheres intermingled.

I can’t decide what is meant to be the focal point – the flowers…
… or the glass. They blend so seamlessly together.

Black & White
Right: Black mondo grass is used in a couple different places throughout the Garden. It’s quite effective when used in such a large quantity.

I loved the magenta color of Chihuly’s Viola Crystal Tower.

I enjoyed The Garden very much & would definitely visit it again, if the chance comes around.

The ticket price included a visit during the day, with the option of coming back at night. We didn’t go back at dark, but I bet it’s spectacular.

Along with simply enjoying the beauty of The Garden, I have 2 take-aways to help me with my own garden. One is how I think about color. I love the way color was used in this garden. Many color palettes were used, yet they merged very well together. The colors were bold &, in many instances, there were variations of the same hue. The Garden also reinforced the importance of trees & shrubs. They certainly weren’t the focus of the garden, yet were so vital to the overall feel of it. It’s an area I struggle with in my own gardens.

It’s worth the visit if you’re in the Seattle area.

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A few years ago I made a cement leaf & since then have been wanting to do it again. I finally did it.

I love this craft for a couple reasons. First is just because it’s something different than my typical paper & sewing crafts. Also because it doesn’t have to be perfect. The imperfections make it fun & arty.

The one I made 3 years ago looks as good today as it did when I made it. I’m hoping to have the same luck with these ones.

• Equal parts Portland Cement & Sand
• Mix in enough water to make it a thick brownie batter consistency

Painting the Leaf:
• I used an outdoor acrylic paint for my leaves.
• First, I painted the leaf the color I wanted the veins to be. I used a paint brush, making sure to get paint in all the cracks & crevices.
• Next, I used a large sponge to paint the leaf a green color, trying not to get the green in the veins.
• Last, also using the sponge, I randomly added other colors to give the leaf a more natural feel.

Finished Products:

Now, where to put them?

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After making hypertufa mushrooms and cement leaves I had one bag of concrete left. I chose to turn that bag of concrete into a bench.

THE BENCH SEAT

We mixed the concrete with water and poured it into an under-the-bed sized storage bin.

Farmer John bent 4 pieces of rebar and placed them in the setting concrete.

Then, it sat for a couple weeks.

THE LEGS & PUTTING IT TOGETHER

We used store bought cement blocks for the legs. We filled them with concrete and set the bench seat on top, making sure the rebar went inside the concrete filled holes in the cement blocks.

Then it sat, undisturbed, for a couple weeks.

The finished bench is heavy & I hope we never need to move it.

This is not a work of art, it was meant to be functional. Years later, though, I did give it an upgrade and mosaiced the bench seat.

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