Make your own mold for a Hypertufa Tiki head.

These are easy to do and you can re-use the for at least 10 or more heads.

These Hypertufa Heads are About 30 inches Tall

I took these pictures while visiting a friend. He prefers that I don't publish his name or the city he lives in.

Since the picture he has made a few more of these guys - even bigger!

He uses a mold for the rough shape and then does the rest of the features after they come out of the mold.

A couple of the ones in this picture have a built in flower pot. You can't see it but it is in the back. In the summer he plants Morning Glory's in them and the vines grow up and down the heads. It looks real cool.

The next installation I will try to tell you how he makes his molds. You may not be able to understand my explanation and I don't have any pictures. It took me a while to know what he was talking about but once I saw one it became clear.

I made one myself (not as big as his) just for a test and have to say it is a great idea.

Maybe I will start the story now...

You should get one of those 55 gallon plastic barrels.

Cut it in half from top to bottom. By this I mean the long way, If the barrel is standing up you want to cut from top to bottom. You want to have 2 pieces shaped like a 'U'.

Now get some foam - the kind mattress' are made of.  About 6 inches thick will do, 8 is better if you can get it.

Anyway cut the foam to fit into the bottom of the half barrel.

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Now comes the part I had trouble getting my head around...

Mark out on the foam where the eyes, nose, and mouth will be. When you do this make sure it is right, once you have done the next step you will not be able to change your mind.[ADSENSE_0000000163]

You will need a propane torch, a good fan, and a long stick with an old tablespoon secured to the end. Wire the spoon on, you will be heating it up and tape and glue will not do the job.

Now take your barrel with the foam in outside and set up your fan so that it will blow smoke away from where you will be standing when you start carving the foam.

Light the torch and heat the spoon red hot. Use the spoon to melt the foam out of the places you marked for nose, eye, etc. You will need to stop and reheat your spoon often. There is no use trying to do it unless the spoon is red hot. As soon as it cools - reheat. Be sure your fan is blowing the smoke away from you. This smoke is NOT GOOD to breath. Believe me on this!

The good part about this is it only takes a couple of minutes so you will not be in the smoke for long. When I tried it I used a piece of leftover foam and practiced a bit. It is a good idea to get a feel for how fast and deep you can carve this way. You don't want to make any mistakes and carve right through when working on the real mold.

I did find out after that if you screw up all you need to do is clean up the area that you messed up and cut a new piece of foam to fit. Dry the area with a hair drier and use spray on contact glue to put in a new piece. The only thing about this is that the joined pieces don't carve as well as the original. If you need to do this practice carved a couple of glued pieces to see how it works.

Once you have done this you will have a mold that you can pack your hypertufa into. I put a piece of plastic over the foam before I put the Tufa in, my theory here is that is keeps the foam from soaking up all the moisture from the Tufa mix. I smoothed it as best I could but didn't worry to much, it gives the head a nice texture.

Once it is hard (3 or 4 days covered with plastic) you can take it out and will be able to add features by mixing small batches and sticking them on where you think it will look best. There is a lot more like this at The Hypertufa News.