iron oxides?

You can add the cement colorants and it should give you the look you want.Just experiment with some browns or rust colors. Look at the recent troughs thread posted by clovis, there are some beautiful use of colorants in the troughs there. Good luck
Cindy

Yo...Mama...a good trick I've borrowed (stolen) from some rock makers goes as follows...

1. Start by adding a small amount of dry oxide color to your mix that will represent the "middletone" of the rock you want.
2. Apply your mix to the target surface and quickly shape it into the rough forms you want.
3. In several paper or plastic plates, have the lighter & darker colors you want to add.
4. Using a very stiff paint brush or even a masons brush, pick up the other colors from the plates and "dab" them straight into the fresh mix where you want them. Try to keep your brush or brushes fairly dry and don't cross-contaminate the light & dark colors as you work.
5. Once you have a workable area colored you can begin to blend the colors a bit.
6. Once set, you can also come back with acid etch stains for additional effects.

Notes: "Dabbing" with a very stiff brush (like the masons brush) creates a nice coarse texture. Another trick is to get some crushed Mica and toss small amounts onto the surface while it's still damp for a very realistic stone effect. And remember, all of the colors mentioned above are absolutely permanent and will never fade.

Hope these notes help as I look forward to seeing another of your amazing finished products.

All my best --- Tango

Thank you very much for all your advice! When I finish, I will try to post pictures.

Tango, where would I purchase crushed mica? It sounds like something I would like to try!

Hi,

We are new to this site but we have been making hypertufa bowls and troughs all summer and have had excellent results with concrete stain and this might be a good alternative.

To get started we googled concrete stains and bought a sample kit with 12 small bottles all in different colors. You can blend, mix, layer, whatever you want to get the colors you are looking for. Stains are not solid and will give the work a very natural dark to light coloration depending on how the stain takes to the tufa.

I would experiment on some existing pieces to see what you like and good luck. I would love to try a wall some day.

Tom

Tom - we would love to see some of your work! Could you post photos?
Laura

Thanks Laura,

I will try and pull that together.

Tom