Cement mixing is as easy as cake batter but know that the dust will do you great harm period. Don't chance it when working with it by NOT using your face mask as well as long cuff rubber gloves and safety glasses. I don't mean to scare you but working cement is nasty stuff if mishandled and not respected for what it is... With that out of the way to your question about light hand made rocks, find white Portland cement at larger hardware outlets that handle it (white is better to achieve purity of hue if or when you go to color the mix). "Portland" is the name of the process of making the product and not a brand name and it is sold almost everywhere in the color of grey so IF you want good color, find the WHITE. Now that you've found your cement, also buy equal amounts of fine industrial sand from the same place and you're almost set. Those are the two basic ingredients for just plain grout mixed in various ratios to one another according to the application. You'll also need some type of aggregate to make this into concrete. Aggregate is the filler used to create volume and ranges in types from heavy iron and granite to light rock shavings as well as Peat Moss. Early Roman masons also used rice in their mix along with many types of grain and some of their work is still standing lol. Vermiculite and Perlite are two of the best aggregates to use for hand made planter type rocks that are light and sturdy. Use the following recipe and see how it works for you:)
Mix thoroughly dry first in a wheel barrow or wash tub that's easy to work in with a common garden hoe or strong spatula (Professionals use their trowells but they also cost a good $$ so just find what works for you).
Recipe: 1 part white Portland Cement 1 part sand 2 parts Perlite
Combine thoroughly and introduce water to it slowly and start working towards creating a mix about the consistency of hand made biscuit dough or a little thicker ( when it's ready you should be able to grab a handfull easily without it slipping through your fingers yet wet enough so when you squeeze it a little water escapes. When it's this way, walk away for about 10 minutes and let it sit.
Hopefully by this time you have some idea of the shape you want your rock and again, hopefully, you've made a rudimentary skeleton form of it that your concrete will adhere to when applied. If not, you can just blob out the mixture in a free style form and it will harden into a shape you can work with a few tools (file, chisel, sandpaper, etc.) as well as making the plant hollow any number of ways such as pushing a cereal bowl down into the still wet mix or even push your hand print deep and use that for small places.
Please forgive my long windedness in this explanation but I enjoy making things with cement and hope you have fun with it... Again, be safe with these products because they are the same things used by professionals.
To achieve different colors, buy regular water based acryllic paint at any hobby section of many places, thin it in a pint of water water and get the color/colors you want and pour the "1 part" of sand in with it before you mix it with the cement and thoroughly mix the sand until it is the right color you want yet still somewhat dry (NOT soupy). You can use a regular plastic gallon pitcher to do all your measuring. They above recipe will yield right at a 5 gallon bucket full o concrete to work with and is not very heavy.
Hope this helps after you wake up from the nap reading all this has brought on... lol ... View related article.
