Mortar Crafts

Mortar is often viewed as more of a practical than an aesthetic substance. It holds buildings together and keeps bricks firmly in place, but it can also be adapted in a more creative way as a medium for making crafts. Mortar itself is a combination of sand and a binder (such as cement) that, when mixed with water, becomes moldable. When it dries, it hardens. These qualities make it useful for shaping into different crafts and projects.

Glass Aggregate Bowl

Use a large metal kitchen bowl as a mold. You probably will ruin the bowl in the process, so don’t use one that’s valuable. Fill the interior lining of the bowl with a half-inch layer of wet mortar to make a bowl. Then insert colored glass and stones into the wet mortar. Press another, slightly smaller bowl into the wet mortar, nestling it against the first bowl, to smooth out the mortar and make it take a more even bowl shape. Let it dry and separate both bowls from the mortar. Use a belt sander or chipper to carefully expose the colored glass and stones, which are now buried firmly in the bowl. Take care when operating the sander, since you can damage the glass pieces if you apply it overzealously. If you don't have a steady hand or are worried about causing damage, an alternative means of doing the project is to use a sponge to expose the glass embeds while the mortar is still partially wet.

Leaf Bird Bath

Find a large leaf in the back yard or the woods. Lay down a plastic dropcloth and prepare the mortar mixture on top, to a depth of about four inches. Round out the wet mortar to form a little hill, giving it enough depth to take the imprint of the leaf. The mortar "hill" should have enough curve to create space for the water when it dries. It helps to envision a leaf whose edges curve slightly inward to form a "bowl" shape rather than a leaf that lies flat. Make the mixture as smooth as possible. Carefully press the leaf over the top with enough force to leave an imprint of the leaf and an indentation for the bird bath. Let the mortar mixture harden. It will assume the shape of the large leaf and serve as a bird bath or lawn ornament.

Statuettes

While wet mortar is not as easy to work with as clay, you can still use it to mold figurines and statuettes. Prepare the wet mixture and use your hands, small garden tools or sculptor’s tools to shape the mortar into human figures. One advantage of this craft is that, unlike ceramic, you don’t have to fire the product in a kiln to harden it. When the mortar hardens, you can leave it in its natural state or glaze and paint it.

Tile and Mortar Crafts

Mortar works well with tile, and the versatility of shapes you can create makes it well-suited for craft projects. Apply tile adhesive to the surface to bind the tiles. Then prepare the mortar mixture and apply it to the tiles. Use a sponge to reveal the tiles before the mortar dries. You can arrange the tiles in any pattern you want and the color scheme is left entirely to your own artistic vision. You can use the tile crafts as a decorative accessory around your home, lawn or garden.

References

• "Garden Crafts: A Practical Guide to Creating Handcrafted Features for Your Garden"; Geraldine Rudge; 2000