Sheree, You can take a leaf and drape it over a shallow bowl and apply hypertufa or concrete or mortar to the back of the leaf.You can also use a damp sand mound, place the leaf with the veins facing up and cover that with hypertufa or concrete or mortar. A couple of us on this forum have made them. Billie

This was actually a bowl with cement poured into it and then the leaf was placed on top and pressed into the cement. After it hardened, they must have removed it from the bowl and took off the leaf. It looks like a small bird bath.

Okay, this is actually a plaster of paris bowl (upside down) but you can do the same with concrete. I intend to make a silicone mold. I took a large bowl, and used sycamore leaves. I put rubber cement on the leaves and adhered them "inside" the bowl. (I used plastic wrap because I used a large stainless bowl, but I don't think I would need it in a plastic bowl.) Then I pressed in the plaster of paris into it. (you can use cement) This gives you the leaf texture on the outside of your cast bowl. If you had put them on the "outside" of the plastic bowl, and then pressed the plaster (or cement) on the outside of the bowl, you would get the leaf texture on the INSIDE of your finished bowl. Good luck. I still haven't made my fishished concrete bowl, but I will someday!! I suppose you could use one large leaf and use the rubber cement. I find it really helps to stabilize the leaf for a better imprint. BB
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deedlesmom, Take a look at this link to Leigh's leaf fountain in the Gallery, this is what I'm talking about. Draping the leaf over a bowl or sand mound then coating the back of the leaf with your mixture. If you press a leaf into a wet/damp bowl of hypertufa or concrete you won't get this kind of detail. Billie

Here is a link that might be useful: Leigh's leaf fountain

Thanks, but that's not what it looked like. I'm gonna mess around this weekend and see if I can duplicate it, just on a smaller scale.
Sheree

The leaf was on the inside of the bowl?
Paws

Yes, the leaf impression was inside the bowl. I figure the concrete mix was probably getting hard by the time she placed the leaf into it. But the veins and the texture was awesome.

Is it possible that she put a leaf on an upside-down bowl and then put concrete on top of that, to end up with a leaf imprint on the inside of the bowl? I've done that with the leaves extending past the edges of the bowl to give it scalloped edges but it wouldn't necessarily have to be done that way. The bowl edges could extend beyond the leaf.

I was just thinking that if one were to cast on the inside of the bowl instead of the outside, any water that might collect would be right in the spot that the leaf imprint would go, preventing a good casting. By the time it was reabsorbed by the concrete it would be too hard to imprint.

I'm not insisting that it was done a certain way--I'm just curious about other ways to do this inside-outside leaf casting thing. I've been working on some projects that involve this and the concepts can get pretty confusing when you're making castings of inside-outside leaves, especially when layering them into specific shapes. Dena, Billie and Sue have been helping me--I really appreciate other peoples' perspective.

Please share what you come up with when you try this!

Deb