Well, I don't really know what I did wrong. I thought I was figuring it out as I went along.
I started off mixing the cement and water to a very thin consistency. But the cement would drip off and the cloth would be dry, not hardened at all. Just a bit of cement dirtiness left in the cloth. I had several pieces of three different textures to work with. So, after the thin cement failed, I moved on to the same fabric types with slightly thicker cement. That failed also. The last attempt with thicker cement I thought seemed to shape better and appeared that it would not drip/flow out of the fabric.
After drying since Sunday, I checked them this morning after my doc appointment and they had seemed to harden on the outside, but the moment they were touched, they crumbled. I thought the terrycloth one I might try to dip again, but then it rained. On the top, where it was dry, was in contrast to the underneath, where the cloth seemed to be soft, almost like the cement completely wicked out of it. I didn't have to turn it upside down to tell that the cement had not formed. The thinner materials were easily blowing in the gentle breeze, getting rid of all the cement each day, so I only had hope in the one terrycloth material.
It seems to me that the cement was too dry, although the mixture ratios I tried all had more water than cement and well mixed before getting the cloth to soak up the cement. Maybe too dry here? I'm tempted to wait to purchase the peat and other stuff, to give the cement more texture and tension. Or use another type of cement, but I don't know which I'd use instead. I thought this cement settled to the bottom of the bucket too much, although I stirred it frequently. I had to keep constantly stirring because it kept returning to looking like silt that settles in water. I don't have experience working with these types of projects. I've only used cement to do simple things that required them hardening and being able to walk on them. Not be of a different statue-like hardness that this seems to require and I think I am bad at explaining.
It is a very messy project. I have cement dripped all around the area I worked in. I used large lawn trash bags on the ground and rocks to keep the bags in place. All the rocks were dripped on, but the cement just rubbed off of them. Yeah, I am thinking I need a different type of cement. Now what do I do with this huge bag of cement I only used a little bit out of?
