Cool looking beast. Can you explain what your form is? sand in a bag??? Is this a planter? Will the tail be hollow?Won't that collect water and freeze? I like th looks of it so far. BB

BB, I sewed bags of a doubled heavy cotton knit for the body, tail and paws
and filled them with dry portland/sand mix, once positioned
I hosed the whole thing down.
When set, I attached expanded lath as needed and then trowelled.
The head frame is a very cool special plastic that's used in
radiation treatment.

The extra advantage of the fabric is that you can sew or pin into it
to attach the lath.

Using cloth bags filled with concrete for shaping is a very cool idea Linnea. Ultra cool.
Just another to add to my "Gotta try that!" list.
Problem is I can't sew.
I guess I have to THAT to my list as well. Sigh.

He is adorable! I am new to this forumn, came here specifically for tufa instrustions.....for making stuff for my AIW garden! :)

I wonder....would this work with say...a stuffed toy?...unsew and remove stuffing, fill with cement/sand mix??? I have tried dipping an entire stuffed animal(a cute catapiller) in cement(actually it was concrete, so he has a kinda lumpy look) and that worked ok, been over a year and still good. but I'm thinking this would be a great way to make a little statue thingy! What do you think? Filling stuffed animals with the mix, would it work almost the same as what you did??? I have an adorable stuffed mushroom waiting to have something done to him!

btw since I'm new and this will be my first hypertufa endeaver, do they have peat and perlite at Lowe's? Is it costly? Already got the Portland cement last weekend, hoping to get the other ingredients this weekend.

Peat is never expensive but if you get a planters fine grade you will pay a couple dollars more but it's worth it.
No sticks!:)
Perlite can be expensive in small bags. Again look for the grower size bags. A huge bag will cost around $15.
Check farming supply places for these.

Diva, the weight of the dry (or wet) sand/portland mix tends to distort and bloat
a sewn "bag" of elaborate shape, such as an animal with legs, head, etc.
A perlite or tufa mix, though lighter, will most likely do the same thing,
and want to lie down besides.

Perhaps you could wrap the animal in duct tape BEFORE you disembowel it?
It would help keep the shape. Then cut it open when set, with scissors.
This would only work with a wet mix, though, since the tape would
not let the water through hosing it down.

You will get the seams inside the beast rendered in your piece,
though you could carve it or sand it after the fact, or build on a thin coat.

As with any fragile or flexible mold, you can support it with sand,
one person pouring the mix and another filling with sand around
the shape at the same rate. A box works best, using less sand than a mound.

I'm actually considering doing human figures in a similar way;
-I have some good human patterns after making cloth dummies
for my web site (they were stuffed with polyfill and perlite), but for
concrete I would use the heavy doubled knit I used for the cat.
The arms and head would have to be sewn on by hand after being
filled separately and held in place, tricky bit, that.

Neeless to say, these would be reclining figures, seriously
laid back, actually.

After watering the things down, you get a longish period
(45 min. depending on weather) when you can adjust
and pat into shape to some extent.

This makes for a solid, heavy sculpture. What if you filled it with sand, like you did, sew on the metal lath for armature, put on a coat of concrete about 3/4 inch thick to make your sculpture, then from the bottom, cut into the bag and let the sand out? wouldn't that considerably lighten your finished sculpture??? BB

Interesting idea BB,
I saw some amazing fiberglass sculptures in a NYC gallery, huge, hollow women,
actually draped figures around human shaped voids.
I actually ordered a brochure which i can't find, so I don't have the
name of the artist just now.

She used suspended leather forms filled with sand, with outlets
at the bottom, to let the sand out after the fibeglass hardened.

It's a fabulous technique I'd like to try sometime, thanks for reminding me!

Expanded lath is hard to work with on anything but flat planes
if a close-fitting "skin" is required (gloves please!), though it's ok for
strategically placed anchors/armature.

You can beat lathe into curves with a hammer. It's flat but still serves the purpose.
I find using smaller strips of lathe and glueing them together with a spot of hot glue here and there works well for some things.
I hate trying to tie wires to the stuff.:)