Indestructible Home-Made Garden Furniture—By E. E. Soderholtz, ™six 
A FASCINATING PASTIME FOR THE AMATEUR WHO WANTS TO ADD PERMANENT 
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES TO THE HOME SURROUNDINGS—WORKING DIREC- 
TIONS FOR MAKING SUNDIALS, VASES OF VARIOUS FORMS, SEATS, ETC., IN CONCRETE 
ONCRETE is especially desirable as 
a material for garden furniture. 
It never rots. It does not require painting, 
its natural gray color seems to harmonize with 
Modern reproductions of Arabian oil jars 
its surroundings of foliage and flowers, 
and, best of all, a reasonable degree of pro- 
ficiency can be obtained in making con- 
crete objects at home, even if one is not 
especially gifted in handling tools. 
In connection with my place, I had a 
small corner lot, close by the road which 
unfortunately, had been cleared of its growth, 
leaving an unsightly picture of stumps and 
boulders —a blot on the landscape and an 
eyesore to myself and my neighbors. 
I planted some clumps of flowers where 
the stumps were and located potted plants to 
replace the boulders. I also made a map, 
planning what would ultimately be a per- 
ennial garden. 
The garden was established about three 
years ago. ‘The one thing that it needed 
was garden furniture, but garden furni- 
ture means money —if one buys it of a 
dealer. As I had some little knowledge of 
working with concrete I decided to try my 
hand at making something of this material 
A garden seat made from reinforced concrete 
is practically indestructible 
ALL KINDS OF GARDEN FURNITURE MAY BE MADE AT HOME FROM CONCRETE. 
at home. The results have been so satis- 
factory that surely some other readers of 
this magazine will be interested in acquiring 
details of my methods of furnishing the ‘‘out- 
door living-room” at comparatively little 
cost. 
The making of concrete furniture is com- 
paratively simple. The process consists of 
having a wooden form or mold, on which 
a cutting plane, called a templet, turns on 
a central pivot around the form, shaping 
the object as it turns. The templet is 
made by shaping a strip of zinc to the 
required conformation of the design. The 
concrete, being laid on the form, is planed 
down to the required shape. The illus- 
trations explain the method to a great 
extent and in order to understand just how 
A sundial pedestal that will last forever 
to go about this work, frequent reference 
should be made to them. 
The first part of the operation consists 
in making an outline drawing (See Fig. 2), the 
full size of the object to be turned, also 
on the same drawing is made the inside or 
form line. 
After the drawing is complete, make a 
tracing of the outline and paste this on a 
strip of zinc of the required size. With a 
pair of tinsmith’s shears cut on the line. 
As the zinc is not stiff enough in itself to 
act as a cutting plane, it is necessary to 
reinforce it by mounting on a thin board, 
made to conform roughly in outline with the 
zinc strip, but allowing the zinc to project 
beyond the wood about one-eighth of an inch. 
Next is the wooden form or mold. This 
is made to conform in shape to the inside 
form line of the drawing and is made by 
276 
shaping wooden discs, on which are nailed 
leather or other strips or thin wood. The 
discs are bored in the centre, to hold a pin, 
on which the templet is fastened, so that 
it may turn freely. 
The templet is fastened to the turning 
pin by means of a wide strip of zinc, one 
end nailed on one side of the templet, bent 
closely around the turning-pin and the 
other end fastened by means of screws, 
to the opposite side of the templet. This 
allows the templet to be removed at the 
finish of the operation without breaking 
or tearing any molding that might be 
projecting. In the case of the lower half 
of the large oil jar shown in Fig. 5, the 
templet may be fastened permanently on | 
the turning-pin, as both pin and templet can 
be drawn up out of centre, when jar is 
finished. 
The form should be set on a level table 
or box and under it a sheet of tar paper 
or other waterproof material placed to pre- 
vent warping of the table. ; 
Next the wooden shell is covered with 
wet newspaper three or four thicknesses. 
This is to prevent the concrete from stick- 
ing to the form. The paper also permits 
the form to be easily drawn from the 
finished object. A small piece of zinc or 
paper around the turning-pin, prevents the 
concrete from clogging near the centre hole. 
Having gotten together the form, templet, 
table, etc., you are now ready to lay on the 
concrete. This is made by mixing one 
part Portland cement to three of sand 
and enough water so that it leaves the 
hoe or trowel freely after mixing. It is 
advisable to use good sharp sand, free from 
all loam, and also to mix sand and cement 
thoroughly, before adding water. It should 
Concrete vases with dwarf evergreens as tops for 
gate posts 
IT IS PRACTICALLY INDESTRUCTIBLE 
