Learn how to sculpt in concrete

We have had a project together with Finja Betong and a concrete artist named Jackie Persson where we at the Norseby School of Art and Design have worked in concrete. Hi and welcome. Today I'm going to demonstrate how you can make your own step-by-step concrete sculpture. The first step we will look at what tools and materials are needed. Take it away! Cutting pliers, flat pliers and a needle. Silk plastic. Gloves. Sticks. Painting knife. Glasses and mouth shield. Fine concrete and mixer. Ink and clean water. Water and paper. Scissors and plastic. Decorations. You can find inspiration everywhere. In books, magazines, the internet, out in the city, out in nature and your own fantasies. So let's get started. I thought a sun would be a fun example to do today. For me the sun is a positive form. Of course you choose what you would like to make. The next step is we are going to build a structure with net. I recommend for beginners to use floor net because it's easy to bend and it's easy for the kids to bend especially. I put on my gloves first because this net has a tendency to bite sometimes and I use wire cutters and I cut out a piece of net the size that I want. So now I have two pieces of net and I'm going to attach them on. When I attach them on you can see that I left these nibs out and they are to help me fasten it to the other piece. If it's tight then you have a very strong sculpture. Now I use a rubber hammer and say for instance I want this corner to be round so I just bend it with my fingers and then I can pound it so it sits flat because you want the pieces sitting flat. The finished structure should look like this and it should be strong to hold all the concrete. Now the fun is going to begin. I use finia finbetong as my concrete when I sculpt because it has small stones and it makes it much easier to sculpt with. Remember to just mix enough concrete for the layer that you're going to be working on. Now I'm going to put the clean water into the concrete. Now for the first layer the consistency should be a little dry. For example if you make a big meatball here you can see that it will hold its form. Now it's time we're going to have fun. Now it's time we're going to make a big fat pancake here. So now I'm spanking the bubbles out of the concrete. The less air bubbles the better. I'm going to set my structure in push in the concrete and I'm going to take my hand and go over the edges so it fastens it. Now I'm going to make smaller thinner pancakes to put on the top and I'm spanking them to get the air out and to flatten them out and I start layering it on top of my net. So now I just have a little bit of net showing through. So I think it's good to see how thin it is. It should be like this thin to the net. Anything thicker is going to be too much. I'm planning to do a sun here so I'm going to get the form a little ready. Now I'm going to make crisscross signs in the wet concrete so when tomorrow, the next day, when we set in the next layer of concrete it will fasten real tight to it. This has to sit overnight and when it sits overnight it has to be an airtight plastic and we wait until tomorrow. First we're going to remove the plastic after it's been sitting for 24 hours. You can see the concrete is a little harder now. I'm going to take a paintbrush and paint water on the dry parts. Not too much water. I would take a paintbrush and shake it a little and then put it on. Now for the second layer you can see the consistency is a lot looser and so when I make a meatball it doesn't hold its form so well. Now I take my second layer of concrete and I make thin pancakes and I press it in the first layer. It's real important it gets pressed in tight so it fastens to the first layer. Even on the sides I go around. Now the fun really begins because you can start adding details. So I'm going to make a sun face here and so now I'm just going to shape the face to how I want it to be. I use my work tools that I find very, very valuable. I really recommend that you use your tools as much as you can. Right now it looks kind of messy but that's okay because I can sculpt it away. Now I have to figure out where I want my sun's head to be and I can draw with the tool whereabouts and I'm going to draw in here too where the eyes are going to go, the nose and the mouth and it's just for reference for me. With the eyes I'm going to use two glass pieces. I made a little concrete blobs here and I'm going to set the glass pieces in that like that, that. Sometimes when the concrete's a little wet I will squeeze it out in my hand a little bit just to get a more firmer shape that I want. So as you can see the concrete is quite wet right now so I'm going to work on other parts now and I'll come back to the face and finish up more details. When working with the second layer it's really important to treat this sculpture like it's a baby kitten so when you pet it, you pet it softly. When your sculpture's finished, place plastic over it and make sure the plastic is airtight. Please do not move your sculpture for 24 hours. In a couple days after that, take the plastic off, brush on water or you can spray water on with a spray bottle, put the plastic back on, airtight and let the concrete harden for three weeks. Okay, it's three weeks later and your concrete sculpture is dry. I noticed there's some concrete on the glass pieces and the eyes here so I'm going to clean them off. I take a rag that has a little water on it and then I take a knife and I'm scraping the concrete off the parts of the eye that I don't want the concrete to be on. Now your sculpture is ready for the garden or for your house, anywhere and it's going to last you your lifetime and even more. So enjoy and have fun. The students thought it was fantastic and fun. Everyone has really done a good job but everyone has also gone in with a good attitude. We adults who have worked on the project have also told them that they will be able to do it and really cheered them up. I'm really proud of them and they surprised the heck out of me because I didn't think that it would go this smoothly and it's just overwhelming to see a hundred and I don't know how many, 110 it is, sculptures with all of this energy.