Concrete Molded Ship Plaque - Tutorial of sorts

6/12/2010:  Transferred this project from my BellSouth Art Diary.      After this piece cured, I hung it on the back fence.   As it is quite thin I wanted to see how well it would hold up.   Well, other than moving it into the shed several times for hurricanes, it held up perfectly well and is still on the fence. 

Concrete Ship Plaque
Monday, September 9, 2002

Found this exceptionally ugly gold (thin) metal tray last weekend for a whole buck. Had to have it (although if I'd waited and come back later, it would have been in the garbage I sure)!

Here's the experiment ... to what extent will the concrete pick up the detail ..., and then if it turns out, just what am I going to do with it?

Thoroughly lathered the face of this puppy down down with vaseline. Prepared up a bunch of dry concrete mix (6 cups sifted sand, 6 cups tan grout, 1 1/2 cups grey Portland Cement).
Cut a circle and various small pieces of stucco mesh, as well as some drywall cloth to use as reinforcement. 

Mixed dry concrete (1 cup at a time), with small amount of water and firmly pressed into entire metal mode. Layed in the stucco mesh (attached a hanging wire through the stucco), and drywall cloth over top of 1st layer of concrete.
Topped off by pressing in another layer of concrete over the mesh reinformements.
Smoothed, dated and carried outside to drying tables.  

 Here's she is .... curing away. Wrapped her up in plastic and will unmold her tomorrow morning. That is, of course, assuming the vaseline was enough to make it come out of the mold. While creating this, I kept thinking I should be using motor oil, but hate the messy residue.


Concrete Ship Plaque
Tuesday, September 10, 2002

 Turned mold upside down on top of peice of styrofoam and gentle pulled mold away from concrete (holding breath, of course). It came out easily; the vaseline was effective.

Lightly rasped the edges, and placed piece inside a plastic garbage bag. Sprayed with water, closed up bag and moved to backyard holding/curing area.

I'll spray daily and leave alone for a couple weeks.

Note: picture does not show it, but detail is quite good. Will probably try some paint or other technique to bring out patterns after at least 1 month of curing.