The-Artistic-Garden's Blog

Sometimes These 2 Ingredients are Hard to Get Your Hands On

I often get asked by many hypertufa and concrete garden art enthusiasts where to find “silica fume” and “poly fibers”, also referred to as “fiber mesh”. Depending where you live, it may or may not be very easy to lay your hands on this stuff.

PLEASE NOTE! Silica fume is sometimes confused with fumed silica (also known as colloidal silica and pyrogenic silica). These materials have different derivations, technical characteristics, and applications. Silica fume is very fine like beach sand and completely black.

Silica fume and poly fibers are used as strengtheners, normally referred to as fortifying agents. They help make your cured hypertufa or concrete object stronger. Often, you’ll want to use one or the other for items such as stepping stones or very thin spheres. I do have some recipes sitting on my website that I’ll refer you to, in case you aren’t familiar with recipes and/or projects that utilize silica fume or poly fibers. Here are three of them:

Hypertufa Recipe Using Fiber Mesh (Poly fibers)  (refer to last recipe on the page)
Hypertufa Sculpture Recipe
Concrete Recipe For Very Thin-walled Spheres

How to Locate Silica Fume and/or Poly Fibers

My first suggestion is to call commercial concrete supply companies in your area. Many times they will have either fortifier, and will be willing to sell you a couple of pounds. (You don’t need much of either one in a recipe – unless I guess you’re making something collosal in size! ).

I’ve even read of people walking away with some for free, after explaining to the sales people what they will be doing with the silica fume or poly fibers. Seems the sales people get a kick hearing that Portland cement is going to be mixed with peat moss and water to make an odd concoction called hypertufa!

My next suggestion is to do what else … that’s right, find suppliers who sell via their online store. In doing a Google search today, I found EpoxyUSA.com carries poly fibers for a very reasonable price on the Fillers-Thickeners webpage. Note – I have no affiliation nor experience ordering from them. Perhaps you should contact them first to check shipping charges, etc. before you order. But I’ll wager a guess they are legitimate and probably fine to deal with.

Finding silica fume online seems to be more of a daunting task. I did find this link to the SilicaFume.org webpage. If nothing else, call them and see where you can purchase a small quantity online.

So, there you have it. I hope I’ve helped you locate two ingredients that do help make a difference in strengthening concrete and hypertufa recipes.

Garden Art Or Junk Art …
Painted Bowling Balls Are Really
A Fun & Funky Look In the Garden

I recevied this email from Freddie who asked:

I found your website by accident and I love it. I love trying new garden art projects, especially junk garden art! I have tried to make garden spheres many times….some came out better than others….and this year I was lying in bed and it occurred to me to use bowling balls. Sheer Genius, right?

My boss brought me two from his last bowling night, one real beauty that I wouldn’t consider painting, but one I’ll paint. What do you suggest I use for paint?

Of course my husband thinks I’m nuts with bowling balls in our garden. Let me know about the paint. Thanks. Freddie

My reply:
Hi Freddie:
Thank you for contacting me and for the kind compliment about my site. I do try hard to offer great information.

About painting bowling balls (yeah, I kinda love junk garden art, too!) – here’s my suggestions:

•  take sandpaper and scuff up the surface really good; this will help a primer coat and/or paint to adhere much better

•  prime it with something like “Kilz” (there is an exterior all-purpose version–you can find it at Lowe’s or Home-Depot as examples)

•  paint with latex or oil-based paints (I’ve been successful using both)

•  finish with at LEAST a couple of liberal clear top coats (matte, gloss or semi-gloss – whatever you prefer)

If you take care with all the steps, your painted bowling ball should last many years in the sun. But be warned, UV rays really take a toll on everything, and even the best paint job might start showing “age” in a few years. I am sure you understand this.

That is why taking extra time to “do it right” the first time will save you peeling paint before the year is finished.

Does this help? If not, please do not hesitate to contact me again. Have fun!!

~~~

Freddie wrote back to say:

Actually your instructions were what I was thinking about doing anyway, it just seemed too logical and easy.

I’m a big recycler, so reusing bowling balls just seemed a no brainer. My boss actually brought me two of them from his league night at bowling. I’m sure he must think I’ve lost it, but I wanted to make a couple for my sister and her gardens.

Can’t wait to get this funky bowling ball garden art project rolling.

Thanks for the info … Freddie

Finding A Store That Sells Perlite Is Not Too Difficult

I received an email from Gabriella asking:

Hi Claudia, I was wondering if your Hypertufa How-To eBook includes sources for supplies? I am having a hard time finding perlite. Thanks, Gabriella

My reply:
Hi Gabriella:
Thanks for contacting me – I can help steer you in the right driection to find perlite.

Perlite is not hard to find if you know where to look. I will assume you live in the USA or Canada. You can find perlite in the indoor gardening area of Home Depot, Lowe’s or even Wal-Mart, as example.

It is usually sold in a smallish-sized bag for around $4.00 per bag (I bought a bag last year–can’t remember the exact price.)

You should also be able to find it in any gardening store that sells potting soils, etc. And you can also find a number of online sources, just search for “buy perlite online”.

But, for those folks who are looking for vermiculite … well that stuff is getting tougher or almost impossible to find. The reason? The contaminant ASBESTOS is sometimes found in vermiculite and we all know that back in the early 1990′s the health hazards of inhaling asbestos became a hot topic and very much talked about publically.

The vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana supplied about 80% of the world’s supply and in 1990 guess what? You got it … they got shut down because of all the health risks attributed to asbestos. As a matter of fact, sadly many of the Libby town residents suffered “vermiculite-related” illnesses due to living within the vicinity of the mining operations and inhaling the asbestos.

So … stick with perlite in your hypertufa recipes and you’ll be fine!

And yes, my Hypertufa eBook does discuss how to find some of the harder-to-find supplies and it has a lot more information on all aspects of working with ‘tufa.

I hope this helps you and if you have any more questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Hi, Thanks for the reply. Do you know where I can find larger bags of the perlite? I live in Wisconsin. Thanks

My reply:
Hi again Gabriella:
I suggest you Google “perlite” and you’ll get lots of search options. Plus, by performing the search yourself, you will get suppliers’ ads that are targeted to your area and/or to Wisconsin. There might be a local supplier where you can get larger quantities.

It looks like there are many online suppliers, of course what they charge is the big question!

Good luck!