Hey Tufanewbe! Don't Give Up! Regarding your pots last year. Do you remember your ratio of sand to cement to styrofoam? The more sand you have in your mix the heavier it is going to be. Alot depends on the size and thickness of the walls in relation to weight. Styrofoam tends to rise to the top of a given layer, so the uneven distribution might account for weight as well. Did you know that you can cover styrofoam forms with tufa? That might help in the weight area, just be sure to use some sort of structural support (i.e. stucco wire, lath) to give it some strength. Now regarding your papertufa. Did you pulp your paper before adding it to your cement and sand? You said you didn't want to mulch your own paper, but I'm not sure if that applies to the shredding itself or breaking down the fibers in water to make a homogenous mixture. If you just added dry paper to the cement and sand, then the paper is going to wick away a whole lot of the water and even though the paper may get completely wet, it will eventually disintegrate because it has not fully bonded with the cement. What you are looking for is a pulp-y glop type of media before you even begin to add the cement and sand. Have you done that before? If not, you take your paper and at least twice as much water as paper to start. Let the paper soak in the water for a few days then take a stucco mixer blade, immersion blender, hand mixer, etc. to run through the paper to break it up. Let it sit a day or so more, then remix until what you see looks kind of translucent and gooey. At this time, you will be ready to add the pulp to the cement. Experiment with small amounts of pulp to cement before you even start to add sand. (lots of folks don't add any sand) See what you have and make a small pot/sculpture/brick. Keep careful notes of your different ratios/formulas/outcomes until you find a mixture that does what you want it to do. Because the paper holds on to moisture, the drying/curing will be slower, especially if your creation is thick or large, but it will make for a very strong end product because of the bond between the paper fibers and the cement. Here's another train of thought from an amazing papercrete artist. Check out jloppnow's post from 10/14/06 (just a page or two back on this list). Jonathon has an amazing recipe that doesn't require pre-soaking and you can see his creation in progress. As I started this out, don't give up! Keep trying different formulas and techniques til you find something that works for you. Jo

Congratualtions on becoming Grandparents! Such joy and love Holley Brielle will receive from such loving GP's Carol your quilt is so beautiful! I have always admired quilters, their patience in designing putting it together, sewing each piece so that it comes together with such artistry. Olivia's name is darling! Kirk I love it when Hubby's beam with love and pride at their beautiful wifes and of course their creative talents! God Bless You both Con el favor de Dios NanaGrandma

nmgirl, what wonders. I immediately sent the link to friends who will also love it. So glad it was here, on the forum, not obscured in a section I never visit. I'd suggest that y'all suggest to one another jumping to that other side if you wish, but please don't deprive us of fascinating goodies.

.. WRT alternate sources of browns - consider your local tree services. Careful that you don't end up with more than you need. WRT to paper as a sole source for browns - yeah it's fine. But I think you know that already. WRT toxic junk mail - yes domestic printing seems to have steered way from toxic inks but anything that might have been printed overseas is origin unknown to me and I won't trust it. If you want something to make you itch, think about office paper and all that plastic toner from laser printers and photocopiers. It's non-toxic but it is plastic. I will continue to compost office paper as long as I can get bags of shredded stuff free. Frankly I'm a little more worried about what I might step in in a parking lot. WRT recycling v composting - I'm on the fence on what is the better path. Recycling is often energy intensive. With a suitable time horizon I could see composting as a more attractive path forward. WRT why should composting be free? With the gargantuan waste stream this country produces, people pay a lot of money to get rid of that much waste. San Francisco has to pay, one way or another, to compost all that happy stuff let alone dispose of all the non-compostables. When I started out composting I was into making as much compost as fast as possible but now I'm more into digesting as much waste as I can as opposed to producing compost. There are some localities around here that will discount your trash pick up if you go through the pain and agony of going through the composting certification thing. I'm not eager to foist my waste onto someone else by flushing it down the toilet or leaving it by the curbside to be picked up and out of my sight. I still have to do that but little by little I do a little less. to sense ..