Shaping Your Hypertufa With Molds

A hypertufa is an artificial rock that is made using Portland cement, peat moss, and perlite. It looks like a tufa, a naturally occurring rock made from a precipitation of limestone. Like a tufa, a hypertufa is very light and porous and is commonly created for building gardening ornaments.

Anyone can make hypertufas in their own homes, using household materials. Aside from the fundamental ingredients, you will also need a mold that will shape the form of your hypertufa project. The molds are important items in constructing your hypertufa as the end result will be based on how artistically you managed to work with your mold. As I mentioned earlier, you do not need to buy things so that you can have a mold. You can utilize various items available your home for your project as your mold, just make sure that it is solid hard and strong enough.

The most frequent molds that are used for hypertufa are cardboard and wooden boxes, trash cans, styrofoam ice chests, buckets, pots, and plastic and metal containers, which are employed to create a planter or a trough. Hypertufa planters pretty much just fill up the shape of the container employed as a mold so the approach is really straightforward.

You may also use other things to create unique gardening ornaments, all you have to do is be creative with what you use as a mold. For example, old inflatable balls may be used to create garden spheres. Huge leaves are also creative options for a mold, although building the hypertufa off it can be a far more tricky procedure. Alternative recommended things are old lanterns, jars, gloves, plates, and so on.

Besides physical objects, you may also set up your own mold from different materials like wood, polystyrene foam, stryrofoam sheets, and chicken wire, to produce a distinctively large hypertufa synthetic stones. You may also dig a hole in the ground and use them as a mold to make hypertufa walking stones.

It is also very important to always bear in mind to put a releasing agent on your molds. The releasing agent will help you to remove the mold by the time the hypertufa hardens. This will also make your mold usable once more. Plastic and trash bags are the most common releasing agents. You can even make use of bubble wraps as a releasing agent to incorporate texture to your creation. If your mold is made of plastic, you can also use oil lubricants like engine oil, Vaseline, and cooking oil as releasing agents.