anybody made leaf birdbaths? any suggestions?

Question

I am interested in making a birdbath with concrete and a large leaf for the imprint. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

I have done this with elephant ear leaves and they turned out very nice. For the basin mold I mounded up damp sand and covered it with plastic. I put the leaves face down on the plastic. The best veins on the leaves are on their back sides. I used about 3 leaves overlapping. Then I piled concrete on top of the leaves to a depth of about 1/2 inch. I put a layer of chicken wire on top of that layer of concrete. When that all dried I added another layer of concrete to cover the chicken wire. In the center I put a long nail covered by a yogurt cup of concrete sticking up which would fit into the base.

A great book on this process is: Creative Concrete Ornaments for the Garden by Sherri Warner Hunter. I first got it from the library but then had to buy my own copy.

Good luck.

Answer 2

Do you have a basin mold at least? Or will it be a free form basin?

The leaf might be better "scribed in" if you have that opportunity? Or if you're crafting the basin in the UP position you might consider pressing fresh leaves into the cement; OR creating the leaf look in relief by removing; scraping away surrounding cement.

Actually a cool looking bird bath would look like the basin was overlapping leaves with the base looking like a tree trunk.