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Questions and Answers about Artificial Rockmaking. |
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Stones
Corner
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Over a ten year period many hands on artificial rock making workshops on the art of making realistic artificial fake rock have been successfully run. We were constantly amazed at the diversity of the people both male and female who attended these workshops. This included persons who have worked in landscaping, landscape design and garden construction for a long time and others who have never even touched portland cement before.
The main things learned over those years are instilled into the step by step artificial rock making details in our faux rockmaking dvds. In a face to face teaching situation the teacher or so called expert is not the only teacher, the students are as well. A lot was learnt from conducting these workshops such as where people are commonly likely to get a bit stuck with a certain stage of the artificial rockmaking process as well as commonly asked questions and also not to assume that everyone knows basic building and gardening 'tradetalk' and pass up on basic but highly relevant information.
The artificial rock making dvds are a combination of keeping the construction techniques as less complicated as possible and showing you how in your own garden to potentially make some of the most realistic fake, faux rock you are likely to see.
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No definately not. If you follow the step by step methods outlined on the artificial how to rock making dvds and use the materials demonstrated with or in the very least materials that arecompatible than no doubt you will end up with a handcrafted rock. , If there are certain materials that may not be available for colouring and texturing in your region its ok... these artificial rockmaking techniques are flexible and adaptable. Look around to see whats in the garage, at the local hardwares and tradesman suppliers and you will more than likely come up with what you need to make your own rock and possibly come up with your own personalised adaptions and thats a good thing because we are not about selling you a system but rather a way to make great fake rock that you can expand your own ideas on.
Without factoring in cyclones, hurricanes, earthquakes, iceages etc your fake solid, hollow and warerfall rocks more than likely will still be here when we're not...
What about wear and tear on the artificial rock surfaces?
The most important thing when making handmade faux rock and especially artificial rock waterfall and pond features is to make sure your sand and portland cements are well mixed together. Inadequate mixing of the cement with other materials is the major cause of artificial rocks breaking apart and bits falling off. The fake artificial rock surfaces wear really well and if anything should just improve with ageing due to the layers of color and sand textures used.
I see you you have two methods of making artificial rock..ie fake solid rock and artificial hollow rock is one method easier than the other or are they the same?
Making solid fake rock is an easier process to start with and gives you the hands on feeling of working with cement based mortars whereas the hollow rockmaking techniques involve more materials and more time in the construction phase.The exception to this is our new lightweight rockmaking techniques which uses fabric for the outer rocklike ski and will become available in the near future.
Dear Mr Tutor
I just received your DVD 4 pack and it is great. I live in Indiana in the States. I have a couple of questions. I am having a little trouble finding Bond and Seal. Most products here are either for sealing or bonding, but not both. Any ideas for Bond and Seal distributors in the USA? Also, I have found the Color Hardener Powders, but do you use this for the oxide natural tints also, or is that a separate product? I am very excited to start, but I just need to get all my materials.
Thanks for the great DVD's
Jeff .
Subject: Re: PVA, Color Hardeners
Hello Jeff,nice to hear from you.
The bond and seal is a typical PVA glue sold in Australia under the name of 'Bondcrete' which is quite thick in consistency so I mix it 4 parts water 1 part PVA glue for most rockmaking functions. I am sure any hardware will have something exactly the same albeit perhaps under different brand names. My suggestion is use two Color Hardeners.....a black or charcoal and a white or ash white.Some of these suppliers also sell what's called 'Color Dispersants' in approx 1lb bags including the deep green. They are powder like oxides and come in a large variety of colors or you could buy available oxide powders from the hardware.
Now this is where the cost saving multifunction comes in. You can use any of these powders to make tints simply by mixing them with water and tablespoon of off white cement to make it adhere to a surface. You can also create more color hardeners by mixing small amounts of different oxide powders with the white color hardener powder allowing you an extra scope of colors without having to buy lots of larger size bags of color hardener powders because you have just made some of your own'.
All the best
Keith Tutor
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