Nancy, Thanks for sharing your photos. Love the realistic painting that you did on your maple leaves. Noses and lips were very funny! Billie

Nancy,

I loved your painted hosta leaf with copper veining on the coil. It will be lovely to watch the copper turn a different shade of green inside the leaf. Good idea!

BTW, how well does the paint hold up in the weather and sun over time... any idea?

Xtal

Nancy, I like all your faces. It's it fun to see what you end up with? Wish the mystery man was turfa, he is so cool. Kathy

Are you seelling these Nancy?

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Web

Thanks everyone for your nice comments on my projects! My apologies for the slow response!

@xtal: The paint hold up pretty well, but probably better if they're sealed. This last batch I've sealed just with acrylic medium, so we'll see how well that works. A couple of them are water-based wood stain with a liquid wax brushed over it, so that should last a long time too.

@pcbutt: Yes I have sold some, mostly to friends, and I give them as gifts too. I haven't made any serious efforts to sell them though; I'll have to wait for summer now to make any more!

Wonderful!
kathy

Thanks! I've added a couple more from a holiday bazaar - where I sold only 2 leaves!

Hello Nancy, I love your garden faces. I was wondering if they are all made from hypertufa? Do you make all the eyes, lips etc, separately and then glue them on? I just tried my first attempt at making a planter from tufa last night. I'm excited to see how it will turn out.
Have a wonderful weekend, Annette.

Hi Annette!

My faces and all of my other things are made from concrete mixtures, not hypertufa, as I can get a finer surface detail.

For the faces, I mix the concrete with as little water as possible so I can work it like clay. I use styrofoam meat trays for the base, and then fashion the features separately and apply them to the base while they're all still damp.

When they're cured enough to handle, I sand them smooth and do some carving with small sculpture tools.

Thanks for the comment, and have fun with the planters!