DIY hypertufa bird bath using.. plastic bottles!

Hi everyone and welcome to my channel. This is Irene's DIY Addiction and today I'll show you how to make a beautiful classic bird bath out of hypertufa. And to make it you will need no fancy molds, just cheap plastic vases and plastic bottles. So let's go ahead and get started. I'll start with preparing hypertufa mix and I'm using the same recipe as before. One part peat moss, one part vermiculite and two parts cement. You can replace peat moss with other organic filler like shredded coconut fibers. Unfortunately they are not available where I live. I'm mixing all the dry components well and then I'm applying about one part water and I'm adding a handful of concrete reinforcing fibers there. You can do without them if you wish but it makes the finished product much sturdier. The mixture should end up being really thick. You may want to add a little more water if it's too thick to mix but do not add too much. You should be able to make a ball that will keep its shape well out of it. To make the vessel for the bath I'll use two Dollar Tree plastic basins. One bigger and the other one smaller and the first thing I'm doing is smearing them with oil to be sure cement will not stick to them. I've chosen this size to make the sides of the vessel about two inches thick. You can also do with only one basin and just apply the mixture on the inside of the basin but using two basins helps keep it neat. So I'm applying the mixture on the inside of the bigger basin then placing the smaller one inside and pushing it well so that the excess mixture sticks out a little bit. I'm evening out the edges and placing a big stone inside the smaller basin to keep it in place. And I'm using one more basin for the bottom part of the feature. I've just had two on hand and you can reuse the same basin of course. You'll just have to start with this one then. I'm filling the basin with mixture and then turning it upside down like children do when making sand pies. And I'm sticking a piece of metal rebar in the middle as a support reinforcement. Next I'll prepare the molds for the support and embellishments. I'll use of two and a half liters bottle and a smaller one liter bottle to make the mold for the support. First I'm cutting the ring out of the smaller bottle about four inches wide. Then I'm attaching it to the bigger bottle top and tracing a line where they meet and then cutting off the top of the bigger bottle. And I'm attaching the ring to the top of the bigger bottle using masking tape. I'm also cutting off the bottom of the bigger bottle and then I'm cutting the finished mold along one side from the very top to the bottom to be able to remove it easily later. And I'm connecting the mold sides back along the cut using masking tape. For making molds for puff embellishments on the vessel I've experimented with different shapes using rounded parts of different bottles and cutting out kind of petals or drops out of them. I've ended up using this puffy little bottle. I've cut a smaller petal first but then I've decided I wanted the puffs to be more rounded and so I've used the entire leftover bottle with a cutout. The only issue is that its bottom was concave so I'm cutting it off and sealing the bottom and the top part with more masking tape to finish the petal shape. The next day I'm removing the vessel from the basings, turning it upside down and dividing it with marker into eight sections. You can make as many parts as you like but I think eight is the easiest variant. I'm also tracing a line at about four inches from the top of the vessel. Here is where the embellishments top parts will be situated. I'm also tracing roughly the plastic petal mold shapes onto each section to be sure they will be placed evenly. Then I'm preparing some more fresh hypertufa mixture and now the fun part begins. I'm filling the bottle petal mold with mixture and then removing the hypertufa puffy drop out of it. The mixture is thick like dough and you can do it with your fingers. And then I'm placing the drop onto the vessel and pressing it gently to stick better. And I'm covering all the vessel with puff drops like so. You may want to press the attached ones through the mold to be sure the finished shape is not spoiled and is nice and even. You may also want to wet the vessel a little before attaching the puffy drops in order they stick better to it. To make the support for the vessel I'm installing the big bottle mold onto the rebar and filling it with mixture up to the top. Be sure to press the mixture well to ensure there's no hollow spots. This is very easy to control as the bottle is clear and you can see how it goes. In the end I've stuck chicken wire into the support for extra reinforcement leaving about six inches to stick out. I'll be using it for attaching the vessel part later. And I'm also sticking three smaller pieces of rebar onto the top for extra support. The next day I'm removing the support mold. It's very easy to do because of the cut along the mold that I previously made and I'm brushing the surface slightly with a wire brush. I'm doing the same thing with the vessel. This reveals hypertufa texture and makes it look like real stone. Be sure to be really gentle if you're doing it the next day as cement just started curing and is still very fragile. You may even want to brush it after two days not one day if you're afraid to damage the surface. It will be harder to work with but it is much more sturdy then. After I finished brushing I left these two pieces to cure for about a week to be sure they are strong enough for further work. To connect the two parts I'll use two garden chairs and pieces of lumber to make the support high enough. I'm placing the vessel bottom up in between the chairs. I'm cutting the chicken wire onto the support into sections and bending them outwards like petals and Gary is turning the support upside down too and placing it onto the pieces of lumber so that it hangs right above the vessel. Here as you can see the chicken wire touches the vessel and I'm filling all the area between the two parts with more hypertufa mixture making a cone thickening at the bottom of the vessel. The next day I'm brushing this part with the wire brush and leaving the whole feature to cure for another week. I've decided I don't like how the support looks so I've decided to make it a little thicker and more curvy. I'm applying hypertufa mixture right over the support and shaping it as I like. I've decided to give it a pierce shape. I'm making another drop shape mold out of a small plastic bottle and embellish the bottom part of the vessel with those puffy drops just as I did with the main vessel part. It's much easier to do by laying the feature on one side and rotating it during the work. I'm applying another thin layer of hypertufa mix onto the support and making grooves on it. Here I'm using a wooden stick to keep the grooves as straight as possible and shaping them with my fingers to make the surface smooth after scratching. I've decided to add little birds to embellish the feature as I've had nice bird molds. I'll try to find similar ones but you can also try to sculpt the birds yourself or just skip this part. The next day I'm brushing the surface as usual and now I only need to finish the very top and the very bottom. I'm taking the birds out of the molds. Here I've had to be super careful as they are still very fragile and as you can see I've inserted pieces of chicken worry into the birds to be able to attach them to the feature easier. But first I'll make the base. I'm applying molded drops here just as I did before. I'm placing the birds onto the edge of the vessel and covering the chicken worry with generous amount of hypertufa and adding more mixture along the edges to make them nice and smooth. And after brushing it the next day it is finally finished and I'll leave it for another week to cure. I've decided to install the bath in the middle of one of my rose beds. I had removed all the plants from there and first I'm digging a hole to make a base for the bath. I'm covering the bottom of the hole with gravel and placing a couple of bricks here to have a good basement. Then we add more gravel till the bath base sits just above the ground. I want only the embellished part of it to be visible. I've decided it will look nice with some paving around it so I'm making the hole bigger and adding more gravel and sand. And after that I'm placing small paving stones around the bath to make a small circle. I've already had those stones. You can also make the paving as you like. For example it will look great with some pebble mosaic around it or you can simply plant some low plants like sea dunes at the bottom of the bath. I'm filling all the gaps in between the stones with sand and watering the paving generously. I've also decided a small pathway going to the bath will look good so I'm adding it here. And finally I'm adding plants. I've planted two dwarf spiraeus near the entrance and several miniature roses. I think they will look great here. I've also added sages and bluebells and even a standard miniature rose. And finally this new rose bed is finished. I really love how it turned out. Honestly speaking I've never liked those classic garden embellishments like you know victorian planters or classic tiered water features but this one goes so well with the roses. I think I should try more of garden embellishments like this. The most exciting in this project for me is that you don't need fancy molds to make it and although you'll have to make it in many steps it's not hard to make it at all. It just will require some time to finish. You can use the same technique to make classic garden planters or you can place a solar pump into the bath and make a garden fountain out of it. The possibilities are so many. If you want more hypertrophic projects be sure to check my garden playlist. I have already made hypertrophic planters, faux stepping stones and even a japanese lantern. Thanks for being here and we'll see you in my next one. Bye!