Painting Techniques for Tufa Leafs

Tufa or Hypertufa

• Real tufa is a volcanic rock, traditionally used for making gardening troughs. Tufa itself is rare and no longer easy to obtain, so in the 1800s an alternative was invented. This is a sand and concrete mixture with peat and some volcanic substances, called hypertufa. Many gardeners simply refer to hypertufa as tufa. Hypertufa is used for many different gardening projects including sculpture. One popular type of tufa sculpture is tufa leaf casting. The tufa leaves can be painted for added color and realism.

Tufa Leaf Painting

• Some gardeners paint their tufa leaves with concrete stain or a water-based acrylic paint. Inexpensive mass-produced acrylic paints are also used. Some gardeners aim to capture the natural color of the leaf, while others prefer to use non-natural decorative colors to create an unusual effect such as a metallic-looking leaf. Latex house paint may also be used effectively, as it is designed to be used on concrete surfaces and tufa is essentially a type of concrete mixture.

Color Matching

• For gardeners who wish to achieve a natural-looking effect with their painted tufa leaves, the most effective approach may be color matching. Hardware or paint stores have the capability to color scan any object and match it to a particular paint mixture. If you bring in a leaf of the exact same type as your tufa sculpture, the hardware store will analyze it and figure out both the vein color and the overall color. The vein color is applied first, and then the other color goes on over it.

Priming

• Many tufa leaf painters simply apply paint directly to the leaf sculpture. However, when painting a canvas or a house, a coat of primer is generally applied first in order to improve the quality of the finished paint job, and the same thing can be done with tufa leaves. Primer will help the tufa leaves keep their color if they have to be scraped clean during regular garden maintenance. Buy primer at a hardware or paint store.