Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/620

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��Popular Science Monthly

��Cement Flower Boxes Made in iMud Molds

MOST of the really artistic and beauti- ful flower vases and boxes of pot- tery and stone for use on verandas and lawns are very expensive. But the boxes illustrated mav be easily made from a

���T.vo boxes made from cement which is formed in handmade molds of plastic clay or mud, making irregular shapes of the surfaces

��mixture of cement, sand, and coarse gravel. This mixture may be molded into original and artistic flower-boxes and vases by means of plain mud mixed from clay soil.

The beauty of the finished products rivals that of the most expensive flower vases and boxes of stone and pottery, and their cost is almost nothing. They can be made in any color or in blends of several colors by adding coloring pigments to the cement in the mixing.

To make them, follow these directions: Make a cement mixture of 1 part good cement; 2 parts washed sand, and 1 part washed coarse gravel. To this dry mix- ture add just enough water to make it run freely into crevices. Procure some clay soil that will mix up into a sticky mud and mix up a tubful of this to the consistency of putty. With bare hands take chunks of the sticky mud and slap it down on the i,'round in the shape you have decided to have the vase or box.

Remember that the inside of the mold you are forming should be kept rough and irregular. If you have your mud mixed

��to the right consistency you will have no trouble in taking it from the pile in large sticky lumps which you are adding to the base of the vase or box and piling it up, leaving the inside shape in the form of the receptacle you are making. Build up the mold about 18 in. high and then fill in with the cement mixture. It will run

^ into the crevices everywhere

around the mud form. When ^j^. • level full begin building up

"^ your mold of mud again.

When you are ready to form the bowl, begin to build up a mud form in the center and leave about a 2-in. space all around the side walls of the mold. After it is shaped and built up high enough to suit your fancy, fill in with more cement mix- ture until it is level full. You now have the walls of the re- ceptacle form- ed. Top them off with more mud, pressing the chunks down into the cement to give the edges of the walls thus formed an irregular shape in keeping with the rest of the receptacle. Let the whole mass stand undisturbed for one week, after which time the mud will begin to crack and break away. You can then chip it away " carefully from the cement, revealing the shape of your flower vase or box. Dig the iiiud out of the bowl and let the cement weather for two days more. Now you can wash the mud out of the crevices in the cement, and you will be surprised at the artistic cave-rock formation you have obtained. After a little practice you will be able to create any formations you desire by shaping the sticky lumps of mud in that way. No two receptacles will ever be exactly alike. Once the cement is thoroughly dry it is as hard as solid rock. The boxes are as substantial as if made from solid stone and are prac- tically indestructible.— J. R. Schmidt.

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