A while ago a poster (pansi) asked about making a concrete bee skep & that got me thinking because I, too, have been pondering how to go about making a weather proof skep. I have a really nice one made out of coiled & woven straw straw that resides on a shelf in my tool shed. I don't put it outside 'cause I'm afraid that between the rain & the humidity here in Zone 7 that it would melt away from mildew in a couple of years.

So I've been looking for extra large flower pots of the shape that could work if painted w/ some details & turned upside down... but that rounded bottom (top) is the stumper & the size I want are way to much $$!

So then I thought about using the thick marine rope that could be coiled/stacked & glued. But the amount of rope I would need is very $$ & there is still the issue of eventual mildwew.

So now I'm thinking that maybe I could do one out of hyper by covering the one I have w/ plastic & using it as a form & carve the coils in or use Johnathons' method of papercrete using the joint compound & create ropes of the medium that I can coil like a rope around the plastic covered form.

OR! Would it work to use the original & use either of the mediums patted onto the INSIDE of the form w/out using plastic which I think would lessen the "coil" detail I am after. Would either medium release from the straw form? I wouldn't mind it there was some straw stuck in the finished product... but I don't want to ruin the original.

At what point can you carve details into hyper? I've made plain tubs that I never looked at while they were curing so don't know at what point they get too hard to carve.

BTW, this is NOT intended for bees to use! It will sit in the middle of a far flower bed (which is why it needs to be fairly large. Right now I have a huge upside down terracotta pot in the spot acting as a stand-in.

Anyone have any thoughts or opinions?!?