How To Cure Hypertension With....Mudpies!

I have all those planets in Gemini and I get into a variety of things....I love plants and garden design and I also have some stress. I think we all might have stress right now(I am not mentioning that "R" word) and be looking for some ways to ease it, ways to relax that don't cost a lot of money or require using a great deal of gasoline. Prices are down now but as you know they could be rocketing back up any minute. So, I have been perusing my books and the internet to find some new ways of bringing the blood pressure downward, as in curing hypertension without doing drugs.

I am also pretty task oriented. I like to think I am accomplishing something at all times. It is somewhat of a bother to be like this but I have  figured out ways to fool myself into playing now and then. I was sloshing along on my way to the mailbox not too long ago and there along the edge of the path was a regular river of wet sand. Some primal urge came over me and I put my hand down there and picked up an big handful of the sandy mud..It felt good, to squeeze that stuff and watch it ooze through my fingers. I knelt down and got another handful and intuitively rolled it into a ball and then squeezed and formed it into ...a somewhat recognizable shape..Kneeling in the driveway, I was, for a few moments in time, relieved of the bondage of adult worry. I noticed I was not conscious of anything but my hand and the mud. I think my heart rate slowed.  This was nice. Very nice in fact.

I finally went on to the mailbox and then back to my cabin in the woods, but I felt oddly calm. I think my blood pressure was....well...better. I started wondering what I could do that would help me hold on to that relief and sense of play and also accomplish ...something. Anything..

I thought of sculpture as a way to release this urge to create but heck, clay isn't lying around in the driveway and on top of that what would I sculpt.. After all, an artist I am not..I thought perhaps I could build something from mud and then I started my search in earnest on the big wide internet.

What I discovered was a craft called Hypertufa.    The picture below shows a planter made with the process.. Lovely and simple to make.  A possible hypertension cure in the making.

It's perfect, like making mud pies but when you're finished you have a useful thing for the garden. A container, for bonsai or other small plants, or anything your heart desires really..It is actually a craft anyone can enjoy and the materials are readily available and inexpensive. What you get in the end product is hard as concrete, a container for plants or other items, a useful product created from a mudpie recipe.

Hypertufa could be considered the craft of making your own rocks. Ever seen a rock in Florida? Alligators...yes...Rocks...no. What is real swell about it is that with this little craft you can make rocks exactly the shape you want them. No more depending on simply finding the right rock or egads, actually buying one. In Florida rocks are expensive, shipped in from Arizona or Utah I imagine.

So anyway I found a guidebook to the craft..see the clickable link below.
It is a very complete instruction manual , with lots of pictures and easy to follow quides. Maybe we can have a mudpie workshop at the coffee shop. Also if you buy the book, you support that magical little coffeeshop in Melrose.

 

Click Here!

Comments

[Nick]

I find your blog is very interesting.Very good information provided by you. Thank you.