Mold for windows.

Base plate made with wood frame

Styrofoam mold made for main base/legs

Pot used for main base/legs covered with plastic and rebar positioned for extra strength.

Main base/legs with styrofoam insert, filled and now the long wait to see how it turned out

The topers

The topers are the only pieces to have fully dried yet so they are much lighter and give you a better idea of the final color. I tried to get a close up so you can see the finished color and detail/texture and maybe see how the black blast adds a nice black sparkle, not sure if you can make it ou in the picture though. This is the last pic for now but I'll follow up with the main top and finished product when I'm done.

One more just to give you an idea where I'm going with this, just a quick mock up of some of the pieces I have done so far.

The mold for the main base worked pretty well, it's a little small compared to the rest of the lantern but I couldn't find any container larger that had the shape I wanted.
Now I just have to pour the top.

Wow, that is fantastic! I have been wanting to do this for a long time. Your ideas will be a big help! Can't wait to see the finished product!

I'm glad it will be a help to you! I'm just glad someone even saw it lol, it seems like this forum doesn't get a lot of traffic. I'll continue to follow up until it's 100%. I just finished refinishing the top, it was a lot of work! Took me like six hours to grind it all down probably because of the extra hardener I added so it doesn't break in half. It's way heavier than I planned but I'm hoping it will still lighten up a bit as it drys. My wife and I couldn't even pick it up together to put it on top so now I'm waiting for it to dry more. I'll add a few pictures of what I went through to make the top in a little bit.

Here is the mold I built for the top, of course it's not finished in this pic but gives you an idea how I made it.

Here is the top with about two hours of grinding done. It got a little faster as it went but took way too long, least fun part of the project :-(

Here is the bonded windows, it shows how I added rebar at each corner to help support the weight of the top piece. I hope it's strong enough!

This picture shows the size of the top and a can for overall size, it's going to be pretty large about 40" tall I think.

I got the top on but it looks a little bulky. I might try to grind it down a little to make it a little thinner. I'll post a new pic if I do.

That looks amazing!! Now I want to make one. :)

Thank you! I can't wait to put it out in the yard to get the full affect. I'll get some better pictures once I have it outside, the lighting in my basement is horrible!

Wow, I love the lantern, what a great job!!!

it looks pretty awesome.. are you going to grind the whole thing? after having completed it, what would you do differently next time around?

it looks pretty awesome.. are you going to grind the whole thing? after having completed it, what would you do differently next time around?

Wow this looks great! This is exactly what one of my summer projects is...making japanese lanterns of of hypertufa.

I have a few questions I hoped you could answer:
1. Where did you get the black blast? (What kind of store?)
2. Did you create each of the 6 panels of the fire box individually and then bond them together or did you create them as one unit? If you bonded them together, what did you use?
3. The concrete bonding additive...is that different than fiberglass fibers added to the mix?
Thanks!

George

Rufretic, You did a great job on your lantern.
George, Until the original poster comes back I'll take a guess.
The black ingredient could be a sandblast media. I have an industrial supply house near me where I buy media for my blast cabinet. Blast media comes in different material and grits. I use a fine silica for etching glass and metal. They even have corn cob and walnut shells besides other abrasives.
From the pictures above, he/she made the window sections separately then mortared the corners together and added rebar at each join. Don't know what they used for a mortar.
Concrete bonding additive is different than the fibers he/she added. Not sure why either was used, the original poster can answer that. A bonding additive is used when you're applying new concrete or plaster to old concrete or plaster. Synthetic fibers are used for very thin sculptural pieces or very large construction like bridges or buildings. A few years back, it was the rage to add fibers. Their tricky to add to a mix. If not added correctly, (there are several different kind too) they can clump up and form big hair balls in the mix. If you add too much they can leave you with a hairy planter/lantern. Think it was recommended to burn them off the outside of the planter. Why bother when you don't need them. I still have two bags that a concrete contractor gave me. They throw these bags (usually 1 bag and their not that big, about 10 inches square and 2 or 3 inches thick) into the concrete mixing trucks.

VERY NICE! You should make an Instructable for this, too!

Here is a link that might be useful: Instructables

rufretic~ Very nice Japanese Lantern! I really love your design.
You do amazing work! Also love the texture of the pieces.
Thanks for taking the time to post pics and explanation as you progress. Such detail in your molds, you must be an expert in drafting and design.

Hey Lou,
Very new to hypertufa. I have some Elephant Ear plants that grew very well this year and really wanted to make some hypertufa leafs. They turned out pretty good for my first venture into this process. I just love your Japanese lantern but I am not sure I would be able to make the molds you made. You must be a very skilled carpenter as well.
Wanted to know what you used as a grinder. Was it just a Dremel-type device?
Thanks for posting and hope to see more of this or other projects you have made. I too see that this forum does not get much traffic. Have you found other sites/groups that do a lot of hypertufa? I would love to get some more ideas and see what people are doing. I do see a lot of leaf projects so mine is certainly not original.

Ande in NC

Check out my first post, the picture with the drill. That is what I used. It is a wire bristle bit I guess you could say. I'm not sure the real name but it is a bit you just use with any drill. I like my battery drill for ease of use but after doing so much of it I had to switch to an electric drill because I would of burnt out my batterys.

As for other projects, I did make a couple more lanterns and a water basin made to look like a natural stone. I'll go take a couple pics if it's not too dark yet and post them.

Ok, got some pics even though it's already dark, just used the flash. You'll have to excuse all the white stuff, we just got our first snow :-)
This first one would have been my favorite but I jacked up the main lantern peice when I was trying to drill out the wood blocks used for the windows. I used a charcoal dye in the mix, otherwise it's the same. Once I finish drilling out the wood blocks, I will resurface where the glue marks are from when I had to glue it all back together but for now I'm going to just let it sit outside until spring. Once that's fixed it might still turn out pretty cool.

This one is the same as the original mix. It's just a simple little guy. No special molds just bowls you can find around the house, anyone could make it. I just carved a peice of styrofoam for the window and stuck it in the bowl for the center peice. The legs are just hand molded in a bowl, just add a little less water for that mix so you can shape it. This one was made for my mother in law but now I kind of like it lol.

Here is the water basin. I'll make a new post explaining how I made this peice.

love seeing your project. If you want to be given emailings when there are post made on the thread just check the box at the bottom, below the area where you type messages and add url link - See it?

I think I might try some of this stuff :)

Very inspiring, thanks for sharing. :-)

Thanks everyone. I made another small one withe a little different design. I'll try to get a picture of it when I get a chance.

This is awesome! Gonna make myself one out of papercrete. Thanks for inspiring me

Hi, this is just amazing! Could you add any measurements, yours have good proportions. I would love to try to make one of these. Are the sides of the firebox in angles.

rufretic, Incredible, just incredible...

Rufretic, your lanterns are amazing. How have they held up, weather-wise? Do you leave them out all winter?