Summary: Every garden needs a focal point; something to draw the eye; something of interest other than plants. You can create your own personal concrete sculpture for just that purpose instead of using a tree or a shrub.

Don't worry about not being handy with mallets and chisels, though. This is so easy that all you need for tools will be just a few odds and ends and your fingers. Wood scraps, sand, cement mix and an iron rod are the basic materials.

Anything your imagination can conjure up is an apt subject for a free-standing garden sculpture, even an abstract shape if you'd like, but choose a shape that will be stable when it is sitting on its base The sculptures that this method produces have totally flat backs.

I'll use an Easter Island type of tiki face for the example, the back of which will be completely flat.

Before getting started, please be sure to wear gloves when working with either wet or dry cement.

First construct a simple frame to use as your molding box. A large 4-sided rectangle will usually suffice, but make it large enough for your completed project. Place the frame on a board that is the size of the frame or a bit larger.

Pour 2 inches of moist sand into your frame. You can piece together miscellaneous wood pieces to form the outline and the sand will support the wood pieces as you create the shape of your design. You don't need to cut any special shapes out of wood for your project unless you want to. The outline of your sculpture should be as tall as the sides of the frame are. You can put in a wood separator on one end to form a flat topped base to your sculpture if you would like, or just let your design taper down toward becoming a base. Use the space above your designated base to create the actual sculpture.

Measure a reinforcing rod, or rebar, against the mold. Bend or cut it as necessary. This is used for reinforcing the sculpture. It should clear the mold by at least an inch all the way around. You don't want it sticking out.

Fill your frame with moist sand and tamp it down fairly tightly. This is your "carving" medium, much like making a sand castle, only you will be taking away sand, rather than adding sand. Here you will rough out the shape of the face you would like your tiki to have. You will need to work quickly to prevent the sand from drying out and crumbling, but if you keep a sprayer bottle of water handy while you work, you can keep it moist longer if you need to.

You can contour the facial details with any shape tool you can find that might impress facial features into the moist sand, such as bottles, spoons, rocks, or even your fingers. After you have the image completed (called a "negative relief"), you can pour your cement into the mold.

Mix your concrete according to the package directions and add dry concrete coloring if you wish. Be sure to mix enough at one time so you won't have to try to match the color if you need to make another batch later. After mixing, put some of the concrete into a coffee can and thin it with water to a consistency that will not damage the facial details when poured in, but that will fill in the features completely. You don't want it runny or watery, just thin. For extra protection of your design, you can pour this mix through your fingers to lessen the impact that gravity might have on the weight of the cement you are pouring and the facial features.

Finally, fill in the rest of the mold with the rest of the mix. Thinning won't matter once you have your features filled in.
After the mold is filled, press the reinforcement rod in at least 1 inch below the surface and smooth over the top of the cement.

When the concrete has set enough to lose its plastic quality, but before it has fully hardened, remove the frame and brush away the sand. Raise the casting to an upright position, using the loose bottom board for support. Smooth the casting using a piece of burlap and work in finer details while it still pliable.

Finally, cure the concrete by wrapping it with burlap and sprinkling with water for 3 days. This will help it weather better outside.

Since the back is flat, you will need to select the site for your finished sculpture near a garden wall; based on whether the sculpture is to be viewed from within the garden, from a window, a patio, a terrace or a street.

If you plan to put it in the center of your garden or an area where it is to be viewed from many angles, you may want to preserve your first mold as much as possible so you can create a similarly shaped version to put back-to-back with the first one for a three-dimensional effect.

Or you can use the cured first version to create a mold form for the back. In order to do this 3-D version, the design needs to be totally symmetrical from right to left, or the backs will not line up. This tiki is an example of a symmetrical sculpture. If you press the face of this into another box of sand, you will have a duplicate for the back side, and while the second tiki is damp, you can shape it to match the back of the first one. Use mortar to press the two halves together if you want the 3D version to be permanently aligned.

As you can see, it really is not as difficult as it sounds, and I suspect your yard will be full of interesting sculptures, both flat and 3D once you see how easy and versatile this method is.

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