Can QW be painted on?

Forgot something...Chris, how well would the PVC pipe, even covered in Quikwall...how well would it hold the weight of say a bowling ball? Would it need to be set in concrete or something? In other words, how heavy is a layer of Quikwall? Enough weight on its own, or not?

Yes, you can paint on QW. Most of mine is painted. I just use craft acrylic paint. But you'll need to seal it. I use Behr Wetlook Sealer.

You can layer QW as thick as you'd like. For my leaves I make it several inches thick. QW is a type of concrete and is very strong. But if you're thinking of something like making stand for the ball using PVC and QW, I would make sure the PVC goes all the way to the top of the stand, and make the QW on the stem at least an inch thick. I'm sure that would hold up just fine. I'm excited Sharon - are you thinking of making a stand?

You might not know, Chris, but I taught art for 37 years...HS students. I make all kinds of crazy things, just had never used Quikwall. But oh yeah, this I have to try.

I'm going to use a sort of metal platter/bowl thing that I found for $1 on the top. That will hold the bowling ball that's covered in the smoothed glass scraps that I'm getting from Bubbles. So there'll be lots of weight on top. That's why I asked about the weight and strength of the pipe with its addition of Quikwall.

Chris, I'll tell you about the lion my students and I built at the request of the local Lions Club some years ago. Cardboard boxes, chicken wire and masking tape were the base, papier mache was the surface body. It was a wonderful lion, huge, about 8 feet tall and maybe 4+ or more feet wide.

We made it in the classroom, took weeks to build and perfect. It was beautiful and jawdropping amazing.

I am a very good art teacher, but one who has no common sense or practical application or something.

When the Lions Club men came to pick it up, it was too big to go through the classroom door.
We had to saw his legs and haunches off, carry the parts out, and then add all the parts and pieces back on.
Duh.

With this bowling ball project, I need all the help I can get.
See?? That's why I'm here.

Sharon, I didn't know you were an art teacher. The lion sounds just awesome! What a bummer about it being too big though.

I did something similar once. I built a hypertufa project that was really big. I built it in the garage and made sure it would fit out the door. What I didn't take into account was how heavy it was. It took 4 men to tip it onto a tilt bed trailer, 6 of us to push it outside to where I wanted it and stand it up. I sure got a hard time about that!

Edited to add: Charleen, it would have made a great fountain!

Another QW and styrofoam project. Used a disc for the shell, a ball for the head and copper tubing for the antennae. These were gifts so I don't have any pictures of them out in the garden.

Chris...you are so creative! These are adorable!

They sure are! I love those

I made the first one because I had a bunch of QW left from a project and didn't want to just throw it out. So this is what I came up with.

Here are a few owls I made out of leftovers. They're pretty heavy so they won't blow off a fencepost. This has been a real popular item. I'm guessing they're about 8-9" tall.

those are so cute Chris.

Cute owls! I like the folk artsy style of them!

Love the owls!

Love the owls, now if I only had a fence...

Owls are so darling. My MIL loved have owls around but my DM and I didn't. Bad omen. It means death when you see an owl during the day time. But those are so cute and they are not a whole owl, I think I could find a place to put a couple of them.

Thanks all. Even if you don't have a fence, a tree stump or step works too.

I'm taking a break and spending some time on the computer I'd show you a couple "finished" Quikwall projects - there are more waiting in the workshop for me to finish!

I collected notes for almost two years from DG's Concrete Forum and got a lot of inspiration from the creations posted by Chris and others - thank you! I finally tackled my first hollow concrete sphere last summer and although I'm pretty sure I posted these on DG since this thread is "Quikwall Art" I'll post them again. The sphere was simple enough, only a few days to make but then I wanted to "embellish" it and that added a few more days before completion. This is the area where I planned to use the sphere and I used Photoshop to "place" it where I wanted it be, in clear view of the edge of the front driveway.



What started as a simple sphere turned into a major project when I decided to make a pedestal to display it. Then I was so anxious to see it in the gardens that I made the mistake of starting the planting of the garden and not painting the sphere first!



After completing the planting and a few unsuccessful attempts to get the paint colors right the sphere and pedestal were finally done!


The sphere is filled with water and until I figure out how to make a concrete leaf which will float I placed a flower inside so people could see there was water in it!

WOW! DOUBLE WOW!!!!!!!!