goldfinch4 said:You can always put it in smaller pails to bring it up. It's easier to store that way too.

Chris, maybe you're the one who posted that handy tip on the DG Concrete forum? I remembered reading it and I have a friend who has the same problem. There's no one to carry the big bag of cement inside for her once she gets it home. Told her to take large garbage bags to Lowes and have the salesperson cut the bag in half for her right there at the store. She can easily carry 25 lbs but not 50 lbs!

Boy, not sure if I posted it there or not, but I read about it a long time ago too. It was a good suggestion.

Keeping with the theme of "Cement" this is another project I finished in the last month. I wanted to do something special for DH's birthday to celebrate 30 years of "growing plants". Everyone asks me where the idea came from? Every year customers ask Rick if he has any special instructions for the plants they purchase and his comment is always the same...."Plant It Green Side Up"! My idea was to create hands holding up a seedling but I made a "few" cement leaves with friends this fall and thought the Hosta leaves worked just as well. Attaching the Hosta to the hands created a little problem!


I tried to make Hosta flowers but that didn't work so I used a dragonfly ornament to give it a little more height.



Remember the piece of PVC pipe I salvaged from my daughter's plumbing project this summer? Not exactly what I had planned to use it for but it was the perfect size to create a "trunk". My original plan was to have his hands coming out of branches from the trunk but I was running out of time!



I had a deadline and even though I finished it in time, in my haste to get it out of the workshop for the birthday celebration one of the leaves broke away from the hands.



I'll figure out a way to get it back on but for now the piece sits by our front door. I had planned to put it in the gardens but Rick likes it so much he wants everyone to see it!



It's tough to see the paint but I tried to achieve a "verdigris" effect for the hands. My inscription is a little "rough", my hands were shaking!



I got a little carried away with the "trunk". I started to add a few things and next thing I knew I was making miniature mushrooms and collecting moss to add to the base! Overall Rick loved it but the extras I added to the base are his favorite.

Debbie, that is so beautiful! And it's very realistic.
You are one of the most creative people I know, amazing ideas!

Creative to the MAX! I'm blown away.

That is totally awesome!!!!

Wow!

Debbie, amazing work!! That is so cool!!

Oh Debbie - that's JUST beautiful!

What fun!

Love the hands!!! Wonderful work...

fantastic,

'Copy everything said above!

Excellent! Great design and great work. I love it!

Shoe

Lovely... an act of love... love of the process... and a homage to your husband.. cute under arangments... whimzy ... grand form of the suport tree.. I was wondering about the sculpting of them... then it came to me you cast the concrete in rubber gloves..[ ? ]. good choice..as it all looks great...

Sharon said:Debbie, that is so beautiful! And it's very realistic.
You are one of the most creative people I know, amazing ideas!

A little too "creative" sometimes! I get carried away with my ideas and even though I'm pleased I actually finished this one, there are plenty more "unfinished" projects still waiting! I think deadlines work for me!

Gordon...I was hoping you'd see this. After seeing all your amazing work I've still got a long way to go but the ideas keep flowing! Yes, the hands were cast with rubber gloves. I got the idea years ago when I saw some hands "Wuvie" had created on an old DG thread. I used the super heavy duty gloves but think I might try thinner gloves the next time. They were a royal pain to remove with all the folds and if this thing was ever dissected you'd find small pieces of blue rubber in there! I solved that problem by spending an extra day 'beefing' up the hands, adding knuckles and thicker fingers - they were way too feminine looking to be Rick's hands!

I probably could have cut two days off the time I spent on this if I had my birthday present before I started it! Celebrated my birthday two weeks later and Rick gave me a new Dremel tool. I had already picked up an assortment of files to sand everything down but my new tool will definitely save me some time on future projects! I've got a whole crate full of cement leaves I made in October and they're all going to need sanding around the edges before I can call them "finished". I don't have any pics of them yet but when I start working with them I'll post pics - I had way too much fun!

I love the detail and quality you put into your work, Debbie - such beautiful artwork!

I want to come to your house for tutorials.

Amazing, Debbie!!!!