Fig Leaves; Hand Sculpted concrete

6/9/2010:  The entry was downloaded from my art diary on my Bellsouth Personal Web Pages.   Almost all of these leaves held up and are still around the property, hanging on the fence or shed.

Fig Leaves 1 & 2; Fig Bowl

Event Times Monday, August 26, 2002

Created two leaf castings and one bowl using Fig leaves (discovered the tree in the neighbors back yard). Wrapped in plastic and set aside for 8 hours. Lifted leaves from sand bed, filed edges with rasp and placed in a bucket of water to hold for a min of three weeks.

Fig Leaves 3, 4 & 5
Event Times
Tuesday, August 27, 2002
  
Created 3 more fig leaves. The goal here is to determine how thin I can take the concrete and have it hold.

Selected leaves from neighbors tree. Wet sand and formed bed for the leaf. Placed a thin sheet of plastic wrap on sand and placed leaf.

Concrete mix: 3 parts sand, 3 parts tan grout; water to consistency of ice cream.

Placed small amounts on leaf and pressed firmly into place.
 
Applied a thin layer of polyacrylic rope fibers on top of concrete layer. Continued add concrete over fibers to form another thin layer. The fibers are now sandiched between layers and should give adequate tensil suppor in lieu of using hardware cloth.

Wrapped in plastic and set aside to dry overnight. (Pieces will be misted with a water spray bottle every few waking hours).

Fig Leaves 3, 4 & 5

Event Times Wednesday, August 28, 2002

Ouch, two of the fig leaves cracked (slightly) while rasping the edges. The third leaf remains in water bed (hopefully) to continue curing ... stronger. Will try again with different technique ... goal here with all these leaves is to determine how thin I can take the concrete and still have it be durable.

Fig Leaves; 6,7,8 &9
Event Times
Thursday, August 29, 2002
 


Created four more fig leaves. Kept same mix, changed from loose polypropylene fibers to drywall cloth and will let leaves sit for two days prior to rasping and movement to water bath.

Leaves are approx. 1/4" in thickness.