Ferro-cement Elephant Garden Stool

This is my third ferro-cement project - an elephant garden stool for my grandson. He said I would be lonely sitting by myself on my owl garden stool in the shade of the mango tree. He wanted to sit on an animal too to keep me company and the elephant is one of his favorite.

Ferro-cement elephant and owl garden stools

 So, here is a series of photos on how to make this beautiful and simple garden stool in the shape of the Asian elephant.

How To Make A Ferro-cement Elephant Garden Stool

Start with a drawing on how the stool would looked like when completed

Construct the armature for the stool base

Add mortar at the bottom. Then the armature of iron rods and wire mesh

Add more mortar to cover the plastic mold

Stool base completed and mortar is ready for hardening

Completed concrete base with plastic mold removed

Construct elephant armature with wire mesh

Put hard cardboard behind the wire mesh. This becomes the backing
for the mortar as it is pushed through the wire mesh

Top view of cardboard tied in place to the wire mesh armature

Construct another skeletal grid of iron rods and wire mesh for the top

Now, add more wire and meshes to form the elephant tasks and trunk

Close-up view of the eyes and tasks

Glass marbles tied with galvanized wires and affixed with hot glue for the elephant eyes

Start by adding mortar to the top of armature - this becomes the seat for the stool

Often times, I have to stop in the midst of things. I put scratches to roughen
the mortar surface so that any subsequent layers of mortar can adhere easily

Cover the incomplete structure with a moist cloth and plastic bag to keep
the mortar from hardening

Front view of incomplete stool yet to be shaped into an elephant

Front view of elephant garden stool

Side view - elephant's ear needs more work for details

I used a chisel and hammer to add more details to the elephant's ear

Back view shows details of elephant's tail

Gloss paint is used to color the elephant

Grey for the elephant

Side view of completed elephant garden stool

Back view

Side view

Front view shows details of eyes and tusks

Completed elephant garden stool

Elephant and owl garden stools