Yin/Yang Cement Sculpture/Planter

In this Instructable, you will learn how to make a yin-yang concrete sculpture that doubles as a planter. This will make a great addition to your backyard, and is worth all the work!

Supplies:

• Styrofoam
• Paper rolls for transporting design to styrofoam
• Concrete/Cement
• 6 wooden sticks
• Metal wire
• A small ball
• Tinfoil
• String
• Spring Snap Hook
• Pebbles (from hiking trip or garden)
• Vine plant (from garden)

Tools:

• Hot glue gun
• Craft knife
• Cement trowel
• Marker
• Pencil
• Electric foam cutter

Our design of the structure is as seen. We want to fit it onto the styrofoam (we got a lot from recent moving).

In our case, we want to fit one half of yin-yang symbol in a rectangle piece of styrofoam with a width to length ratio of 3:4.

Given the fit, draw a 3x4 rectangle that fits on your styrofoam on the paper. Make sure you have enough paper for two of them as we need to draw one template for the outside and one for inside (planter).

The purpose is to transport our design to the styrofoam and make as it as big as possible. You can follow our steps or transport the design in your own way.

I will refer to the short side as the width and the long side as the length. Mark (1) at the 2/3 mark of the width and (2) the 1/2 mark of the length as shown.

Draw a large semicircle on the paper center at (2) and radius 1/2 of the length. It should connected to your previously marked (1).

We do not have a huge compass so we used a string and a pencil to draw the semicircle-By attaching the pencil to the string, and securing one end, you can draw perfect circles.

Draw two semicircles on the straight side of the original semicircle, each with half the radius of the original semicircle. One should point out of the original semicircle and one should point in.

Cut two copies of the template. One will be the outside template.

For the planter, we decided to cut a chunk out of the concave side of one of the templates. This will create a hollow area to place flowerpots in. We will call the original template for the outside Template A, and the edited one for the inside Template B.

Notice that we also sketched out the locations for sticks (which would make a trellis for our vine plants to grow)

Trace copies of each template onto the styrofoam. Template A is the outside, so you only need 2-4, depending on the thickness of the styrofoam. Template B is the inside, so you need 6-10, depending on the thickness.

Tip: If you don't have enough styrofoam for a full piece, you can trace multiple parts and put them together later, as in the green parts in the picture, but you might want to mark all of the parts that belong to the same piece to keep track.

Use a craft knife to cut out the templates.

Make sure to do this over a large piece of cardboard, for two reasons:

1. The craft knife may pierce through the styrofoam, so you need a buffer zone between the styrofoam and the floor.

2. Styrofoam bits will fly all over the place, and it will be easier to clean up if you use a large piece of cardboard with boundary tipped up.

Stack the pieces to give yourself an impression of how you are going to arrange them.

Use the hot glue gun to stick together the pieces.

Add the sticks so that they go through the outside part of the styrofoam shape as designed. They will help plants grow by acting as a trellis. The sticks also serve as structure support.

Cut down any extra length of the sticks. Glue to secure them.

Draw the small circle on the template while it is on the styrofoam shape.

Press hard on the dots so that the marker bleeds through onto the styrofoam.

Use the dots that bled through as a framework to draw the circle. Repeat on the other side.

Use the electric foam cutter to cut through the first foam layer. Repeat on the other side.

Use the trowel to remove the inner circle of styrofoam. Repeat on the other side.

Add layers of tinfoil around the ball. Wrap them around and try to keep the layers even. Wrap tightly!

Wrap a metal wire around the tinfoil to secure it, as well as provide a place to attach to the string. The final ball should be of equal size to the inner circle.

Add the snap hook to the wire connecting to the ball.

Wrap the wire around the styrofoam in the circle. Repeat for another wire. Our wire is not strong enough so we twisted 3 wires into one for each circle.

Use pins to secure a wire circle to the styrofoam. Repeat for the other wire circle.

Tip: The pins may stick out of the smooth side of the styrofoam if they are put in diagonally. Make sure they are put in straight and don't stick out before you apply the concrete.

Wrap masking tape around the styrofoam to secure it.

We found that the rocks in the concrete did not attach well, so we decided to sift out the rocks and use just the cement.

Mix cement. The texture depends on your goal. Apply multiple times as needed. We applied three layers. Make sure to spread concrete on the tinfoil ball as well.

Dip the ball in cement.

Apply cement to the other side of the sculpture once it dries. It ended up looking a lot smoother because we used a more watery texture.

Patch any holes up with cement and do the rim.

Add a pot and a vine plant. We used a morning glory (a fast-growing plant!). Try to make sure the vine goes through the sticks and the wire. We also added another plant at the base.

Water as needed.

Use a piece of string to hang the ball from the wire. If you can find something natural to hang it with, like a woody vine, that would be better.

Add cement and stick thin rocks on.