Garden Art With A Touch Of Sparkle

It's True!!! 

 I am a DIY junkie.

  I love watching all the garden shows, how to renovate your kitchen, bathroom, etc.  Mostly I dream of some hunk of a man approaching me in the building store, and whispering in my ear, "Excuse me Miss, can I come home with you and renovate your yard?"
   Or your bathroom, I'd be good with that too!!  

We were watching a television show starring an artistic hunky landscaping dude,
you might have heard of him, Jamie Durie.
http://www.jamieduriedesign.com/
It was a show on HGTV called The Outdoor Room
http://www.hgtv.com/the-outdoor-room-with-jamie-durie/show/index.html

  He featured a garden sculpture constructed from rebar.
  Unfortunately, he doesn't come home with you.
  I think you have to pay him, dearly!!

  I can't remember the species of leaves they fashioned their leaves from, but we decided to devise ours from one of the old Poplar trees on our property.

  We are hoping to do three around our fire pit and one already completed in another part of the yard, all with a climbing vine growing up the stems, I am hopeful in a few years that they will offer shade for our early evening campfires.   The first one, was for another area of the yard.   This practice leaf was created  by myself and the artist "Leaf" formally known as Mr. FT.

It kind of flows with the old snag (dead tree) to the right.
 Unfortunately  the snag  will soon fall down but we have
 enjoyed watching woodpeckers and other birds build their homes in it every year!
  Plus at Halloween, it's kinda creepy and scares off the little ones so
 I have more candy for myself.  That's why I buy the good stuff!

We planted two climbing rose bushes on either side.
Okay, why does Walmart sell rose bushes that are not for our growing zone?

The leaves were created using 3\8" and 5/8" rebar, a bender,
 a welder, chop saw, grinder, cutting torch, 4' standard pipe, and some scrap 1\4" plate, and of course a guy who can weld...(Mr. FT) ahem "Leaf"

With gung ho and sweat, we cut, bent and welded the rebar into curves using the vein structure and outside perimeter of the real leaf for our inspiration.

A stem consisting of five pieces of rebar and 4" pipe slices were fabbed together and secured to the base of the leaf.  Extra rebar was welded from the stem to the bottom part of the leaf for structural purposes.

Rebar is pounded into the hole about ten feet deep for added strength.  Colored concrete was poured as this will stick out of the ground about eight inches, with the structure mounted directly to the top.

A 1/4' plate with rebar welded to threaded rod was created to sink into the concrete.  The 8" diameter base plate is removable, so that it can be welded to the  leaf once the concrete has cured.

The plate is removed from the concrete and each of the five pieces of rebar are welded to the top of the base plate.  It is then re-attached to concrete foundation using the threaded rod from the concrete through the holes on the base plate secured firmly with nuts.  Hope you got that cuz it was quite a mouthful!
Plus I confused myself now so I need a brain nap!

 Setting up the solar bling!

Solar lights were added to the leaf for nighttime parties around the campfire.  And now for some sparkle:

The second leaf is in the works for the firepit area.  The base has been poured but the leaf is still in fabrication mode.   I will post an update.

Cheers!

Linking up with These Lovelies!