Easter Island Heads Revisited
By Delmar Germyn

Have you ever wanted to make Easter Island style headset of Hypertufa? I’ve written a couple of articles about doing this but I keep getting asked so here’s another one. I’m going to make it short and simple and I hope it helps you.

There Is only a couple of things I can tell you, the first is don’t try to cast the whole thing at once. What I did was use a 55 gallon plastic barrel cut in half lengthwise. Then using fairly hard foam like in mattresses I carved out a rough shape of the face.

To do this I got a big spoon and drilled a couple holes in the handle and screwed it onto a stick. I then heated the stick red hot with a propane torch and used it to carve holes in the foam for the nose eyes and mouth. Be sure to stand up wind when you’re doing this or have a fan blowing from behind you the fumes are terrible.

Once I had that done I placed a sheet of thin plastic on top of it. Then I placed my Tufa onto that. You only want it to be a couple of inches thick and I didn’t worry too much about wrinkles and stuff in the plastic it just gives the face a bit of character. I covered it with plastic and let it harden overnight and then the next afternoon started building up on top of it.

Before I started to build up a put in a 2 x 4 that went almost a full length of the face with a point on the end and about 3 feet sticking out at the bottom. This was the stick it into the ground so it wouldn’t fall over. Then I just built up on top of that until I have a thickness of about 10 or 12 inches then covered again with plastic and let it harden a couple of days. Then one more application to round off the back of the head, harden it a couple more days and carefully take it out of the mold.

Be really careful when you’re taking it out if it hasn’t hardened long enough it will break. Assuming you get it without breaking it you will now see what the face looks like. If you don’t like it you can add more features by just scratching it with a wire brush and sticking on some more tufa wherever you think it means it. I usually build out the forehead and add the ears.

You can do whatever you like the nice thing is that you don’t like it is fairly easy to break off and do it again.

The only really tricky thing is getting out of the mold without breaking it. The other thing to pay attention to is even after you have done your de molding don’t try to move around too much. Once you’re happy with it moisten it and let a cure for about a week and a half before you try to plant it.

I’ve never made any past the neck but I guess if you wanted to you could make a shouldered sort of thing and stick the head on top of it. Most of mine I buried in the ground sometimes up to the nose. On some others I made a built-in planter on the back and planted moss or Ivy.

Even after I have some outside and planted it is summertime I run the hose on them almost every day to help them cure better. It also waters the moss. If you use moss be sure you plant your head in a shady spot where moss would normally grow. I’ve found if the moss doesn’t grow naturally where you live it’s not much use trying to grow any.

I hope this helps you some Chris and if you do get around to making a couple I wouldn’t mind seeing some pictures. I would like to put them up on my website.

Best regards and good luck, Del

An old time Seer, I have been around this Planet for 2.34 centuries. I used to travel with my dragon to fairs and teach gardening skills. I did a lot of work in the UK a couple of hundred years ago. It was me who got Queen Mary interested in Hypertufa. The old gal really liked making her own planters and statues. She even made a couple of bird baths that are still there today. Now, thanks to the Internet I can stay at my home in the new world with my wife and dog and dispense my knowledge without the hassles of passports and taxis to and from the airport.

Raven Forex

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