Calamity its beatiful! I love it.
Kathy

LOL calamity_j you rock! I never got into armatures but would have saved myself a lot of time and effort if I did. I don't know... just not my thing I guess. But I very much admire your work.

>>tried to do some leaves but didn't work, crumbled, added too much stuff to the concrete, I think I went wrong by using coconut coire instead of peatmoss

Are you talking about leaf castings? They are made out of concrete, NOT hypertufa. 1:2 or 1:3 portland cement and fine sand, nothing else.

Calamity, Nice job on the castle. Is that mosaic tiling or did you cut the castle rocks out of the mortar mix.

phaedris, You can use concrete (portland, sand and gravel) for leaf castings if you don't mind the gravel and it might be the best for super large castings. Most of us use mortar or hypertufa mix for leaf castings. Billie

Don't you lose some of the detail when using hypertufa for leaves? What am I missing? Mine came out more detailed with mortar.

That castle is amazing; who can work inside and be that neat?

I put old 70's amber glass in the windows, used little black pebbles(mortared) around the windows, smashed some scrap slate up and siliconed(silicone adhesive) it to the castle,(quick) and then grouted...didn't like the grout color(grey) so gave it a wash with watered down green patio paint(acrylic craft paint) Put some lights in, and now am working on the copper roofs... this is going beside my pond veeery soon!!! oh ya! Will sit on a 2ft high rock pedastal, so will be 6 ft tall. Garden Bling!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:69591}}

Calamity, It will look amazing once the copper oxidizes or you can apply a patina. Did you seal the painted grout lines? I use arcylic paint for a lot of outdoor projects and mine have lasted for quite a few years but they do fade.

club, Not everyone is messy. LOL! I teach classes and some people are covered in the mix and others aren't.
Regarding leaf castings, it depends on which hypertufa recipe you use. I don't use perlite and I sift my peat moss for leaf castings. I don't want to hijack calamity's castle thread but there are lots of threads on this forum regarding leaf castings and recipes. Billie

This is the neatest I have ever been, working on a project...ha! My Play room is a nice size(13x21)(Hubby made this room so I wouldn't have stuff all over the kitchen table/living room...) and I have a big 4x6 table on wheels that you can NEVER see the surface of!! I got working on the copper part and just took my arm and plowed stuff outta the way!ha! DH is a neat freak and is always freakin' bout the mess everywhere...(I usually work on a few projects at a time)
I am so excited about this that I will string a tarp up if I have to(really rainy here), to get the base for where this is gonna reside, done....

It's been ages since I have posted here (literally years). Now that my girls are old enough to help with this kind of thing I had to come back. What an inspiration! We have been working on a fairy garden this past week and Maya wants this castle.

May I ask what mixture you used for the coating of the framework? And did you use multiple layers? I'm going to try for a small framework tomorrow morning.

I can't wait to see the roof done. I love copper roofs but I can't seem to find it inexpensive enough around here.

Very creative! Love it!

...So that's all it takes to get your own workshop huh? I just need to mess up the kitchen and living room tables and wait for my DH to build me a shop hmmm....may be on to something here.

I used a cement mix, cement and sand and skimmed it onto a double layer of wire mesh...it oozes thru a bit so don't smoosh too hard, or it will go right thru, I ended up taking a whole bunch off one area when I realized it was Really too thick, just put it on somewhere else and si even mosaiced and grouted I can still lift this bad boy!ha! Barely! I hope you post pics of your Fairey Garden, I plan to make one too...and a gnome garden and a "Old Lady who lived in a ...boot...Garden" heh I'm gonna stay busy for a few months!ha! Working on finishing the pond this weekend where this castle will sit! sooo close....

Castle done and residing on waterfront property!lol! by the pond!

Now I want to get working on my Old Lady Who Lived In a Boot And make wings for a 2ft fairy statue I have!

Congratulations on your finished piece. It looks great in it's new home.
Funny you mentioning the fairy wings, I was just thinking about someone who made a fairy a few years ago. I think that was on the wet canvas web site.