Stepping Stone Experiment and Tip of the Day

I like to experiment with materials and use them in ways that are not their intended use.  Sometimes these things work out and sometimes they don't.  And sometimes they lead you in interesting directions that you did not expect. 

I cast this stone using small bits of aquarium gravel.  I drew a picture of the design then slipped it under some sticky clear paper used in making mosaic designs.  I think the brand was called Mosaic Mount, but it was so long ago that the name could be incorrect.  Then I set the stones on the paper on the sticky side of the paper following my design.  The sticky paper holds the stones in place.  Once the design was finished, the Mosaic Mount paper was cut to the size of the stepping stone mold and laid in the bottom of the mold.  Then I poured in the stepping stone cement.  Up until that point, the experiment was going okay.

When I took the stone out of the mold and peeled off the paper, it was a disappointment.  The concrete color was a dull gray and did not show off the design well.  So I needed to figure out how to make the design stand out and bring in some color. I decided to use the bake in the oven acrylic enamel glass paint because I had some left over from a glass painting project.  So I painted the stone gold, and outlined the designs with brown paint and baked it in the oven to set the enamel.  This was the first stepping stone I had used this paint on and I was really happy with the results. It changed the experiment from something that did not work out and was destined for the trash into interesting garden art. This experiment that started as a failure set me onto my other painted stepping stone projects and now I have colorful stepping stones in my garden and throughout the yard. (Once you get started, one is never enough.) 

This stepping stone has been outside year round since 2004 and is still retaining its color nicely.

A Tip of the Day for Crafters about this type of project:  I tried to sell some stepping stone art at a farmers market.  It did not work out well.  The stepping stones were actual paintings.  One was an ocean scene of a light house on a bluff.  The other was a geometric pattern with words inserted such as "inspire" , "enjoy" etc.  You have probably seen some of that type of art somewhere.  Anyway, they took a significant amount of time to paint.  Everyone liked them, but no one wanted to buy them for the price I was asking, $25.00.  This price was not exorbitant considering the amount of time spent painting them and the cost of materials.  People offered $5.00 for them.  I would not accept that because that would not even pay for the materials used to make them.  I could not even buy a blank stepping stone for that.  The problem is that home crafters cannot compete with China where the labor and materials are government subsidized.  So if you plan to make them, plan on making them for yourself of for giving as gifts because buyers don't want to pay enough to make it worth doing for sales.

Sadly, I gave those stepping stones away as gifts before I took pictures of them.  That is unfortunate because they truly Art for the garden rather than just being a craft project.