Elephant Ear Leaf Casting

I cut one of my elephant ear leafs to make a leaf casting today.  I was a little better about not mixing too much cement.  I was over by about a cup and a half which isn't too bad... better to much than too little.  Since I had trouble with air bubbles in the cement of my basin project over the weekend, I decided to try brushing the PAM around the leaf after spraying it... I used a clean 2" brush to do that.  It did come out much smoother with less air bubbles but I don't know if it was from the brushing or from casting a single leaf instead of layers of leaves.  I did have quite a bit of cleanup along the edges this time.  The edges of the leaf were sort of ruffled which looks nice but the cement had a tendency to get away from me.  My cement may have been a little too loose so I will make it a bit drier to see if that helps.  The leaf released without any tears so I am going to use it to make a second leaf (I put it in water out in the garage refrigerator to keep it fresh).  Here are some photos of my casting process.  Detailed instructions can be found on the "Leaf Casting" page her on my blog.

A clean leaf over formed damp sand covered in plastic

Work the cement from the middle of the leaf outward toward the edge.

After you have finished applying cement all the
way to the edge, lay a heavy wire on the back.

Add more cement to secure the wire.

Brush it smooth with a damp paint brush so it looks nice.
You will probably need to rinse the brush a few times to clean
the cement off.  Be sure to not to have the brush to wet.  

Here it is!  I just love this part!!!  After 8 hours of drying, I
flipped it over and removed the leaf. It looks pretty good   :-)

The edges need cleaning... this is where the cement
got away from me because it was a little too wet.

Edges cleaned

The natural pointed tip of the elephant ear

All cleaned up with no breaks.  I have covered it back
up with plastic.It just needs to cure for a week or more.