Garden Art - Cement Sculpting The Dos & Don’ts: Garden Art Crafts, #1

Garden Art - Cement Sculpting

The Dos & Don’ts

Subtitle:  With Recipes & Instruction

Author  Robyn Ji Smith

Independently published

Also available in Black and White plus Full Colour Paperback plus an eBook Version 

Copyright applies to this book

Can be purchased in Black and White or Full Colour A Paperback and eBook is available.

This book Belongs to 

If I lost it let me know Email me at 

IN THIS BOOK WE WILL COVER:-

CEMENT TYPES

CLAY MIXED WITH CONCRETE.

CEMENT & AIR DRIED CLAY RECIPES

CEMENT SCULPTING RECIPE

SMOOTH COATINGS

AIR ENTRAINMENT

AGGREGATES AND CEMENT ADDITIVES:

SUPER PLASTICIZERS:

PIGMENTS, DYES & SEALERS:

ART CONCRETE HOW-TO

ARMATURES

TURTLES

HYPER TUFA

CLAY RECIPE FOR AIR-DRIED CLAY

BASICS CLAY SCULPTING TOOLS

MAKING CEMENT OR DAS CLAY BUTTERFLIES & DRAGONFLIES

LARGER BUTTERFLIES

MAKE GNOMES IN CEMENT FOR YOUR GARDEN

ALL CEMENT SCULPTURES NEED AN ARMATURE

MAKE A GNOME IN A STOCKING

BIRDS WITH WINGS RECIPES

TURTLE  DESIGN.

CEMENT DOLLS FACES MADE IN A SAND BED

CEMENT HAND CONSTRUCTION

WELCOME & INSPIRATIONAL SIGNS

ANGEL WINGS

CLAY RECIPE FOR AIR-DRIED CLAY

CLEANING CEMENT GARDEN ART

YOUR HELPING HAND

Hello Folks,

First, you are about to play an important role in history. The questions that you ask me count in history making.  You are not a nuisance, your questions - insight me to write things in different ways. This helps others in more ways than you can imagine. So get in touch via Facebook. Currently, it is October 2024 and I am 78 years old. Until I go to play upstairs, ask away. Sharing knowledge is very important in history-making. 

As a clinical Aromatherapist, I often would introduce my clients to craft.  My pop (my mothers' dad) was the youngest child of a 13-child family. My Pop inherited a vast amount of knowledge from his family, and he exhibited remarkable talent and a cheerful disposition. In my final years - I want to revisit my childhood crafts, with the idea of documenting my trials and errors to share with future generations.  When I decided to create garden art again, I realized that loads of information was tucked away in my unconscious mind and I needed to bring it forward.  Watching YouTube videos prompted some of my memories, mostly the don’ts.

Most folk don’t know what they don’t know, myself included. You are bound to gain some very helpful information from this book and understand why one recipe will work fine in one type of climate and not another.  One of the most enlightening moments for me while studying Aromatherapy was the study of lavender oil.  I remember my nan saying to me in 1950 - that she needed to go to Tasmania to get some fresh lavender plants to distil. As a child, I did not understand that the same plants grown in different countries and regions had very different healing benefits.

Artists can make concrete sculptures using casting, carving, mesh, wire, or tin foil armature techniques. Choosing the right materials (recipes) and proportions, such as cement and aggregate, is crucial for a strong and long-lasting sculpture. Concrete is durable and versatile as long as you know how to work with it. It is accessible and affordable; you can buy the needed raw material in any building supply store.

Grinding, sanding, and polishing can help achieve a smooth surface finish on your concrete statues.

Refinishing and maintaining concrete statues is important to ensure their longevity and appearance. The different climates require different mixtures. There are endless DIY concrete ornaments, decorations, planters, bird baths, and garden benches, that you can make and personalize for your garden. Inspirational sayings written or carved into stone or written on cement have been around since the beginning of time. 

It is important to understand in layman terms all the dos and don’ts.

IN THIS BOOK WE WILL COVER:-

1.  Small garden art between 4cm (1 and 1/2 inches) to 70 cm (28 inches) in height. With descriptions of building the frames for larger statues. 2.  Different cement recipes

Different air-dried clay recipes

Armature types for each project

Setting out your worksheet

Lean different approaches to the method.

Most of the dos and don’ts to working with cement and air-dried clay.

What are the benefits of crafting? 

Reduced stress. Stress is one of our leading health problems.

Helps relieve and reduce depression and anxiety.

Projects help build self-esteem.

Decreased risk of cognitive impairment as you age.

Can help with insomnia

THE REASON I CRAFTED THIS BOOK

This Book offers some detailed guidelines and recipes from my own experiments and my research into using cement/ concrete for small-scale art projects. It covers everything from materials and techniques to sources and hazards.

When I decided to make garden art, I tried to recall all my family had done with me as a child. But at 7 6 years of age- there was a long gap in my memory bank. Therefore, I set out watching YouTube tutorials to refresh my memory. There are some amazing artists. Yet some of the things they were doing had a mixed reaction. Some artists prompted my memory bank with oh no that’s a do not and some reminded me of