A garden craft gets a workout


Voila! Hypertufa has arrived in my garden. Actually it's been hanging around for a couple weeks, but I've been busy.

Last month, I got together with an old friend to experiment with hypertufa at her place. She has a spacious backyard where messes can be made unobtrusively. I brought over some cheap plastic containers to use as a planter-type mold and, as I was unable to find some cheap plastic balls, I used her husband's old soccer balls for the spheres I had long wanted to make.


I won't give the recipe and exact directions here. They are everywhere. I will say my inspiration for making spheres came from Frances/Faire Garden. So, without going into boring detail, we mixed a bunch of stuff together in a wheelbarrow. We also sprayed Pam into the molds after laboriously cutting little circles out of the old soccer balls (this ought to have been an omen of things to come). We filled all the molds and then had some wine and dinner.


While the plastic molds came easily away after the requisite couple days, the soccer ball skins held onto their filling for some time, until finally, the guy working on our kitchen took pity and offered to get the leather off with his special tools.

And there you have it. Strange prehistoric spheres and a perfectly good planter.

Comments

Kylee Baumle said…
My mom has made many a hypertufa objet d'art and planter and actually has taught a class about it, but I have yet to do the first one. I love the soccer grooves in your spheres!
Darla said…
I have been wanting to try this since Ms. Frances did the how to post...like what you did.
I love the soccer balls. Now you could take some grapevines and wind them around the grooves and get moss to grow on those balls and have one wicked looking ball. They are actually great without the grapevines but wouldn't that be quite the touch?? I have always wanted to do this project but haven't actually tried yet. Those cheap plastic balls are had at the marts or dollar stores.
Anonymous said…
Wow, Elizabeth, those are awesome!!! How about moss in the grooves? Or nothing, they are superb already. I was wondering how you were going to get the leather off. Hooray for the workman and his nifty tools. Thanks for the linkage! :-)
Frances
Ha! I'm glad you were finally able to get those soccer balls off. I really like how they turned out. Very different. The mossy color is nice too.
Nice! I have wanted to do that for a long time. Fortunately, our driveway already looks like someone's been making hypertufa on it for years, so there's a workspace. Curious to see what takes on the spheres.
I didn't expect them to have the sections on them. They look really neat. But I don't think I'll try it with soccer balls if I'd have to wait for a repairman to get them out.
Anonymous said…
Love them.

Deirdre
Layanee said…
I like them. Where is Fred Flintstone?
I always knew there was actual use for soccer balls, but I was never exactly sure what it was!
Gail said…
I want to try these Elizabeth~they look great and will age to perfection!
gail
Donna said…
These soccer planters are soooo cool. Would love to make some myself, but would not be able to separate the two like your workman did. Lucky for you to have a resourceful worker.
Pam J. said…
Bravo! I'm inspired.

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