Lars' Creative Warehouse
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Lars' Creative Warehouse
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A Stone Flower PostA Cast Stone Flower Tops this Post | |
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To get going on a theme for my land, I decided to try the simplest of structures, a stone post I chose a spot at the crest of a rise along the road and started with a post hole about 42" deep
I worried about things tipping with the freeze thaw cycle, so I tried to be good about getting down below the frost level. Using about four 1/2" rebar, I filled the post hole and set about a 32" square pad down to start. The inside of the post is regular concrete block. Having never tried stone facing before, I found that it wears your fingers down to no fingerprints and generally takes a long time. Picking stones that were as large as I could manage to incorporate into the, roughly 4 inch deep, pattern, I gathered up facing stones from my big pile. Anything in the great outdoors, as long as there is enough of a field, looks pretty small. I decided to go up one more block, I guess that would be (6)8=48" high.
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The cap was dang heavy to hoist up on top of the post. I cast it using a few ornamental inserts into the form. The corners, the flowers, and the name plate were, to a great degree, much more trouble than they were worth.
The form, that is, the design, of the cap is slightly more complicated than a four sided pyramid. The 'hips' of the cap go from the top center down to the middle of the four faces. This causes each face to have a little triangular rise above the flower. I tried to continue the round circle about the flower on the cap as well, but, in all honesty, it does not look that good up close. The effect is okay from a distance, and one my subsequent attempts, I have tried to be alot more careful when mortaring in cast pieces. It always seems to be high mosquito season, or close to sunset, or both, when I make the trip out to set things. My method was pretty simple, just mortar in stones so that they lay nicely and also form a ledge for the next row up. I found a piece of wood, or even a 1" chunk of styrofoam works well for stuffing mortar all around the stones. It helps to keep the work moist and wrap it in plastic after you have finished. The mortar grabs onto the stones like grim death. Once it cures, especially when you keep it moist, it gets quite solid. |
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A Stone Carving of a Blanketflower | ||
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The original flower carving was out of a scrap of limestone sill. My friend, Jim Vakoc, had some rubbery goop for making a form from a positive, so I built a box to hold it and tried it out. Since then, every time I had and extra five pounds of concrete, I pour a flower. | |
A Stone Carving of a Blanketflower | ||
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It has taken me WAY too long to establish a theme, but I feel like all the buildings, gates, firepit area, and any future projects will all harken back to this original gatepost. | |
A Nice marker |
The Cap |
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