Those troughs take a lot more mix than you think they would.

I'll let you know how it turns out - I'm being really patient this time...

Good Luck! I'm not great at "Patient" but it sure helps you to learn.

I have a bunch of semps in small pots waiting to plant in tufa that I haven't even started to make yet. I've got to get at that soon. If the blasted weather would just cooperate!

Is your weather cold again Chris?

Hey, check out this blog - pay particular attention to the little faces - holy smokes those are cute!

http://popespots.blogspot.com/

Oh how I wish the photos would enlarge. : ( What I can see is awesome. Is there a way to see them up close Jacki?

We had frost this morning! (But its 57 right now.) I'll have to check for frost damage when I get home tonight. Hopefully everything is OK. This usually happens once or twice every spring. Tulips, daffodils, bleeding hearts are all in flower right now.

Can't open that link from work - I'll have to check it out later.

No that picture is really small - I think it was 175 px, which is about 3". I'm trying to get a hold of the owner of the blog, and the artisan to see if I can do a page on her and her art. If she says yes, maybe I'll see if she's okay with me posting that pic in a bigger format. What have I got to lose?

Jacki I would love to see those up close.

Speaking of which. Chris are you going to put your little tufa pots in your Store Front? We can put a permant link for them in your above article and in the Steals and Deals Forum.

Lynn, I'll send you a c-mail.

Got it. : )

I'm setting up an email interview with Debra Pope, the hypertufa lady, so if you have anything I should ask her, let me know right away. I'll be sending her a list of questions tomorrow sometime.

Cool! Can you ask her if she uses any metal or wire reinforcement in her larger pieces, like troughs (if she makes troughs, that is). If she lives in a cold weather area, does she do anything special with her containers over the winter? I've heard that the life span of hypertufa items is about 10 years. What has her experience with that been? Thanks!

Anyone else? I'll probably wait a couple of hours to send the questions, so let me know if you think of anything else you really need to know.

Does she use a form to make the faces?

You know, I had a little niggling thought when I saw those faces. I tried it, and made a few with a small batch, and while I was making them I realized why those ones in the picture seemed so familiar - a long time ago (like 5 or 10 years) there was a short lived fad of putting your tomatoes as they grew (the fruit) into a clear plastic mold - these are what she used! Too funny! I've searched and can't find the molds, so they've gone out of style. Too bad, they would be so easy to use for this.

I remember that fad also.
http://plasterandconcretemolds...

Look at this site. http://spluch.blogspot.com/200...

Those are exactly it! I wonder if you can still buy them? That would be so much easier than trying to hand build them.

It looks like that company went out of business not long ago (retired is what it said).