Another easy project that anybody can do!. Lets make a quick DIY cement Incense holder. Grab a sauce cup from your pantry, gather little bit cement, water, paint and sealer.
Materials required:
- Cement
- Any oil
- Mold – a sauce cup will do!
- Silicone bumpers
- Water
- Mixing container
- Mixing stick
- Water based clear Sealer – polyacrylic
- Sand paper or Sanding block
- Acrylic paints
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DOs and DONTs
- You can use any kind of mold for your casting. I have seen people use all kinds of material as mold. You can make silicone mold with this kit from amazon or buy one (like I did to make my DIY cement coaster) or make one with melamine wood or use any plastic container. It really depends on the size of your object and what shape you want to cast. If you are casting a small and simple object, you can also make a mold in the desired shape with cardboard. Once concrete cures, cardboard can be peeled off easily.
- Prepping the mold: Make sure the mold is water tight. If you are using any material other than silicone or melamine, I recommend coating the mold with clean vegetable oil or some release agent. This will help a lot when you demold.
- Make sure that you follow the cement to water ratio as per the manufacturer’s specification. I have used ‘Cement All’ in this project. As per the direction, I used a 1:4 ratio. You want the mixture to be in pancake batter-like consistency.
- After you fill the mold, it is very important to release the air bubbles. So, give a few taps on all sides and corners of the mold. If you are casting a bigger item, pound on the mold with a rubber mallet.
- To add a personal touch, you can add liquid cement color to your concrete mix. In this project, I have only used acrylic paints to color the cement. In the case of acrylic paints, use as little as possible. Otherwise, it could affect the composition of the mixture.
- After curing, you should seal it with a water-based sealer. I use this polyacrylic sealer for most of my projects. It gives a little shiny finish to it.
DIY Cement Incense Holder
Step – 1: Grease the inner sides of the sauce cup with vegetable oil. You can use any kind of oil here. The oil will not mix with cement and it will make the demolding process easier.
Step – 2: Mix the cement. Follow the ratio as per the instructions given in the package. I use the ratio 1:4 water to cement ratio for the product ‘cement all’. In this DIY. I have also added some pink acrylic paint to color the cement.
Step – 3: Pour the cement mix into the cup. Then, tap on all sides. This will help to release the air pockets.
Optional step : I thought I could make the hole for incense stick using a tooth pick and remove it after its cured. So, I taped the tooth pick, oiled it and inserted into the cement at center.
Step – 5: Tap on all sides again to release air bubbles. Let it cure for at least 24 hours.
Step – 6: Before de molding, try to loosen up the edges by scoring with a knife. Since we already oiled the mold, it will easily demold. Remove the tooth pick as well. For me, one of them came out easily but other one broke into half and was left inside the base. So, after sanding I made the hole with power drill.
Step – 7 : Sand the whole piece and remove dust with clean towel.
Step – 8: Personalize the holder with any color paint you want or leave it as it is in cement color. Finally finish with water based clear sealer.
Step – 9: Add bumpers or cork sheet underneath to protect the surface where you will keep this holder.
If DIY Cement Incense Holder is not on your mind, then try these other easy Cement projects! 🙂
