Raining, No Wood Burning - Update on Hypertufa Projects

Painted Hypertufa ball.

Adding a primer coat of Gesso.

Regular readers know that my plan was to blog today on testing various wood burning tips to see which worked best with the Celtic Knot Work design for the walking stick.    I do my wood burning outside on my outdoor work bench because the charred smell of burning wood makes my home smell like a forest fire has taken place.  Rain once again blocked my plans.  With drought being a problem in so much of the country I am grateful for the rain, but it is getting to be a bit much.  I had planned to work outside on Thursday.  It rained.  Friday, rain was predicted all day.  It rained intermittently throughout the day.  Saturday, the forecast called for no rain, but it decided to rain fairly heavily for about four hours.  Everything is still soaking wet outside.  Once it dries out enough, I will be outside working on my project.

Lip at the join had to be ground down.

In the mean time, I thought I'd update you on my latest Hypertufa projects.  I painted a small Hypertufa ball in January and put it outside.  A plain Hypertufa ball, or one that has been painted can stay outside even in winter.  I am pleased to say that the paint has not faded or cracked in any way despite rain, snow, ice, and hot summer sun.  The ball looks as good now as it did the day I put it out there.  It has inspired me to paint another ball.  I am half-way through giving the ball a coat of Gesso for a primer.

It is worthwhile to not the different casting methods used on the balls.  The painted ball (Photo 1) was cast by using a round plastic ball as a mold.  It does not have the join line in the center, but will always have a slightly flattened bottom. (gravity!) The other to balls (Photos
2 and 3) were cast in half sphere molds
and were joined at the center using thin
set mortar.  This leaves a line in the center. For more detailed information on casting Hypertufa, sign on to the blog and search the menu on the right hand side for blog posts labled Hypertufa.

If a ball has mosaic tiles and grout, the ball needs to be brought in during the winter months because water sometimes gets down between the tiles and grout and can freeze and cause cracking.  Remember to bring your tiled garden balls in for the winter once a freeze warning is issued.

I cast another Hypertufa ball and a stand for the ball.  This ball was a bit of a disappointment at first.  I had the mix a little too wet.  It slumped away from the mold and oozed slightly in the mold when it was turned over during the curing process.  This left a little bit of a lip on the edge of the ball and a slightly flattened top.  My attempts to repair the situation by patching in additional mortar did not help much.   I just left it sit for a while until I was ready to make a second attempt at a repair.

This time I tried a different approach.  I got out an angle grinder and ground down the edge and the rough spots created by my first repair job.  Where once I had a big jutting lip in the middle of the ball, I now have a smooth edge.  Although the edge shows the scars of grinding, I think that once the ball is covered with mosaic tiles and grout it will be barely noticeable.  The top of the ball is a little flatter than it ought to be but I think it will be the defacto bottom of the ball.  So the angle grinder worked.  If you should use it to work on your Hypertufa (or any other project for that matter) be sure to wear eye protection, ear plugs, and a dust mask.

We should be in for a few days of nice weather, so I hope to have the photos of different types of wood burning tips on the Celtic Knot Work next blog post.