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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



June, 1 910 





The Hasdicraftsvias 



Conducted by A. Russell Bond 



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Home Made Concrete Flower Urns 



By J. E. Lloyd 



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HERE is something about concrete which is 

 very fascinating to craftsmen, because the 

 material is possessed of so many latent 

 possibilities. Nothing is more easily 

 worked that is so durable and permanent. 

 It seems odd that one can actually cast 

 stone with much less difficulty than he can 

 make articles of clay; and the beauty of it is that anything 

 may be used as a mold for concrete, thus enabling the 

 amateur to exercise his Ingenuity in putting together 

 various receptacles, such as butter tubs, nail kegs, kitchen 

 utensils and the like, to form the molds he desires. 



The two concrete urns pictured on this page are the 

 work of Mr. C. La Verne Butler, of Framingham, Massa- 

 chusetts, who has displayed a great deal of resourcefulness 

 in constructing the molds for these garden ornaments. It 

 would puzzle the average man to devise a mold for the 

 round columns, but Mr. Butler solved the problem by 

 using sections of ordinary stove pipe. The pedestals and 

 capstones were cast in molds framed up with bits of wooden 



molding of stand- 

 ard design. For 

 the urns, he used 

 a half barrel and 

 a pail. 



Details of the 

 various molds 

 are shown in the 



hering to it. lo start with, a layer of concrete was made 

 in the bottom of the barrel on the plank. The proportions 

 used were one part of cement to two parts of clean, sharp 

 sand. By this is meant sand that contains no clay or other 

 dirt, so that when wet the water does not become muddy. 

 The cement and sand were thoroughly mixed in the dry 

 condition and then wet sufficiently to be tamped down easily 

 in the bottom of the barrel. A two-inch layer was first put 

 down, and then it was reinforced with wire. The best 

 material for the purpose is wire lathe of about a half-inch 

 mesh. The wire lathe was then covered with more con- 

 crete and a pail was set in the barrel concentrically. A 

 number of stones had to be placed in the pail to keep it 

 from floating up as the concrete was filled in around the 

 sides. The sides were also reinforced with wire. 



After the material had stood for about four or five 

 hours, the pail was removed. Had the pail remained in 

 the concrete much longer, the concrete would have set so 

 hard that it would be difficult to remove the pail. It is 

 essential in all concrete work that all cores be of tapered 

 form, so that 

 they may readily 

 be lifted out of 

 the cast, or if 

 not, they should 

 be so constructed 

 that they can be 

 taken apart. The 



A five-columned concrete flower urn 



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Molds used for casting the garden urn. The 



urn proper was cast in a half barrel, the 



columns in stove pipe and the capitals 



in kitchen utensils 



Hand-carved three-columned flower urn 



line drawing. At A may be seen the mold for the urn. ordinary pail is formed with a taper, and, therefore, is just 



A barrel was sawed in two and the bottom knocked out. the thing for the core of a mold, provided, of course, it is 



This was placed on a level bed of plank, which was well lifted out as soon as the concrete is hard enough to retain 



lubricated with linseed oil to prevent the concrete from ad- its shape and before it has hardened sufficiently to grip 



