Concrete Garden ProjectsPart of the appeal of Malin Nilsson and Camilla Arvidsson’s book is simplicity: Most of the pots, vases, candle holders, stepping stones and decorative figurines in the book were created using the same easy steps: Find an interesting mold, fill it with concrete, let it dry. If you’ve picked your molds well, the results look great.
The pots pictured here were made with jumbo cupcake molds made of silicone, which was firm enough to hold its shape but pliable enough to remove the concrete with incredible ease.
The authors recommend brushing molds with vegetable oil; I spray my silicone forms with Pam. Plop in wet mixed concrete, push in a smaller object to create the interior well (I used cheap IKEA glass votive candleholders, also sprayed with Pam), then level and smooth the top with wet fingers. After two days of baking in indirect sunlight, the silicone molds and the votive holders can be removed. Your cupcakes are ready.
These things work best as tea light holders, but if you want to use them as miniature pots with drainage, put a half-inch piece of oiled-up wine cork at the bottom of the mold before pouring in the wet concrete. After the pot has dried, the cork should pop out.
Concrete 2 literI tried about 10 types of molds. A scalloped cake pan worked well for making a larger pot, and when the cork wouldn’t come loose, I simply drilled it out. Tiny triangular sushi molds bought in L.A.’s Little Tokyo were the only clear failure. The concrete would not separate from the mold, probably because the plastic was striated — so detailed in texture, the concrete had too much surface area to cling to.
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