Love the natural look of rocks and pebbles in home decor? If so, then you have to see these DIY ideas made with stones and rock. Cool and easy crafts to decorate your home on a budget, but with flair, you are sure to find one or more to make this weekend in this list
Make a DIY mosaic stepping stone with concrete and beautiful stained glass tile. A fun garden art project tutorial with all the details!
Want to add a sweet touch to your garden with some handmade garden crafts? These stepping stones are very easy and fun to make! It is made from concrete and mosaics. It would make a beautiful garden path – durable and affordable! What needed: Plastic basin Mosaics Pliers PVA glue diluted with water in a […]
A stepping stone made from beautiful rocks collected from rivers and lakeshores on the south island of New Zealand My stepping stone workshop in Glenorchy, New Zealand Gold and Black alternating bands of Mexican Beach Pebbles in Los Angeles The most frequently asked question I get in regards to my mosaic work seems to be "Where do you get your stones?" After that comes the question "Do you ever teach workshops?" I have on occasion taught them but it has been a long time. The reason I quit doing them is that they are truly exhausting. I have to assemble close to two tons of material to teach 20 people my technique. Each person needs a wooden form to build their mosaic in, and then I have to procure the 20 bags of mortar (1,600 pounds) and another ton of sorted pebbles, and we haven't even started the class yet. Reed College ? Mosaic The last one I gave was at Reed College in Portland for the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon. The mosaics were in situ in a parking strip garden in front of the Theater Arts Building off campus. We made a series of theater masks in the themes of Comedy, Tragedy, and Theater of the Absurd. The last title seemed to make the most sense as the mosaics were supposed to be pads for maintenance workers to step on to keep from compacting the soil in the beds. So most of the laboriously constructed mosaics are now buried in vegetation and impossible to see except maybe in winter. I still don't know if anybody in the workshop ever went on to build their own mosaics afterwards. Such is the reward of such endeavors. What I do now is tell people that if they want to try to build a pebble mosaic that they should start with a simple stepping stone. I have built a number of them for a project as part of a trade I am doing with a man who is slowly fabricating wonderful steel structures for my garden. I made 26 18x18" square mosaics for his garden in a simple box made of 2x4's and a square sheet of plywood screwed together with a cordless drill and 2 1/2 inch long screws. The box has two longer pieces of 2x4 on two sides so that I can unscrew the box and tap the boards free after the step stone has cured, which takes about two or three days. I use a framing square to make sure the angles are 90 degrees, and drill shorter screws through the 2x4's in to the plywood to give it rigidity. If you want rounded corners or curves in your shape, I like to use the rolled flexible lawn edging that is normally used between grass and planting beds. This can be used inside the wood form with some blocking if you need it to maintain the desired shape. Wood form, lawn edging and beach rock mosaic Once the box is built, you can mock up a mosaic inside of it. The trickiest part of building a good mosaic is finding the right stones. Most people are too lazy to really do a good job of this and they often ask me if I could sell kits where the stones are already sorted. Sounds like a lot of fun to me, spending hundreds of hours sorting pebbles for other people so that they don't have to. Pay me $100 a pound and I might consider it, but other wise you are on your own. That means going to the beach, or a river, or a stone yard. You can buy bagged pebbles although the selection is usually limited. The most commonly available pebbles are Mexican Beach Pebbles from Baja California, which are gathered by small operations from beaches there. I am amazed that the supply needed to stock stone yards all over the US are still available after decades of sales, but they still seem to come up with them. They used to be only black, in a few sizes, but now you can sometimes find buff gold pebbles and dark red. The black and gold seem to have the most usable shapes though. Dont buy the ones larger than 2 inches as there will be very few usable shapes. Bagged Pebbles at a stone yard in Seattle Montana Rainbow Mix Pebbles I also sort through piles of pebbles in stone yards, a rather joyless and tedious task that requires a meditative will, as it usually takes 3 or 4 hours to sort a couple of 5 gallon buckets worth. You need to wet the pebbles to see the colors since they are usually dirty and all look brown when they are dry. One of my favorite selections is called 'Montana Rainbow Mix', or 'Pame', which I assume comes from Montana. The colors are a blend of pastels, with red and pink being the predominant shades. The Miro mosaics that I wrote a blog about a while back are made mostly from this mix, sorted by color. I also did a Brazilian Carnaval inspired mosaic parking strip for a client that features outlined areas of the various colors. Carnaval Mosaic Panels If you collect from the wild, you should do so with some discretion. No picking in State or National Parks! Not just any shape will work, and the pebbles cant be laid flat like pancakes so that you get more coverage as they will pop out over time. They have to be set on edge, or if they are large, have enough thickness to stay imbedded in the mortar. A great way to proceed is to put some temporary sand in the bottom of your form box, and practice placing the pebbles in the sand. They ideally should be set on edge, so you need pebbles that have a flat top surface and straight sides so they fit tightly together. You will get the hang of it if you do it in sand as you can see what it might look like when you actually set it in mortar. You can even compose the entire mosaic in the sand and then take it apart. If you do this you will know that you have the proper quantity of pebbles to do the job. Chances are your first mosaic is going to be a little funky, and you will learn from experience, so don't do the entrance to your house first thing. An 18x18 inch mosaic that is 3 1/2 inches thick is very heavy and takes two people to move. I like to insert two pieces of 3/8th or 1/2 inch rebar in to the mortar for reinforcement because it sucks when a stepping stone you spent so much time on breaks when you take it out of the form. You can get these already cut at Home Depot, or cut them to length with a hack saw. It takes about 1 and 1/3 80 pound bags of Type S Mortar to fill a box of this size. One bag should work on a 14 x 14 inch step stone and it will be easier to move when it is done. Adjust the quantity if you use 60 pound bags. Do not use concrete mix! It dries out very fast and the stones wont stick. It has to be mortar, which is usually used to set stone or lay bricks. You will need another pieces of plywood a little bigger than the form to lay on top and step on to flatten the work once it is done. The tools needed are pretty low tech. Mixing Mortar in a wheel barrow with a hoe You mix the mortar in a plastic mortar pan or better yet a contractors wheel barrow using a garden hoe. I wear a dust mask when mixing to avoid breathing the dust. Use a squeeze handle spray nozzle on the end of your garden hose to wet the mix. Put some water in the pan or wheel barrow first and then open the bag on one end and dump the contents out, pulling up on the bag. You add more water as you mix until it reaches a stiff pudding like consistency. Dig down to the bottom of the wheel barrow so you don't have pockets of dry mix. Be thorough. If you can stick your finger in the mortar and it maintains the indentation without being too liquid, then you are probably there. If it cracks and looks dry, add a little more water, but be careful as it doesn't take much extra water to make the mortar soupy, and you cant build a good mosaic in a soupy mix. Once it is ready, I scoop it in to the form, wearing rubber gloves, as the mortar is not good to get on your skin. Working bare handed will lead to cracked dried out fingers. You should work in an area that you don't mind making a mess in as you need to hose off the excess mortar when you are finished setting and flattening the mosaic. You can work on a strong table if you want to sit or stand up. I sit on a little plastic stool while I work. Stand up and stretch from time to time or you will become a hunchback. If you have extra mortar you can put it in a bucket and let it dry and then knock it out later, or even make another little mosaic top of that. I have several of these little round bucket mosaics in my garden. A form in place made of flexible lawn edging supported by large 10 inch nails at regular intervals. The base is compacted crushed gravel Mocking up a potential mosaic design with assorted stones collected from Puget Sound beaches Completed mosaic Keep your sorted pebbles in plastic nursery pots and dump them out to pick through them. It is very important that your pebbles be sorted in advance. Once you are working with the wet mortar you need to push on through, no going to pee or answer the phone. Work in the shade unless it is a cloudy day as it will give you more time to work. The mortar will set up a lot quicker on a hot day. You need protection from rain if it is a wet day as it will make soup of your mortar. I push the two pieces of rebar in to the mortar about a half inch from the bottom sheet of plywood. The top level of the mortar should be about a half inch below the top of the form as the pebbles will displace some of the mortar as you set them in. Make sure that none of your pebbles are thicker than the depth of the form itself. Finishing a stepstone at the O'Byrne Garden in Eugene, Oregon You can draw your design in to the mortar with a stick. I like to keep a flat screw driver on hand for this, and to pry out pebbles that didn't go in the way you want them to. Look at each pebble as you put it in so the the best face is forward. Each pebble should be wet (spray them with the nozzle), and imbedded at least an inch in to the mortar or it may pop out later. This can take years to happen. Well imbedded pebbles should stay put for decades. The pebbles along the edge should ideally be set perpendicular to the form so that they don't come off if you step on the edge of the stepping stone later. I like to select shapes for the corners that are squarish and deeply set so they dont break off later. The more conciencious you are building your mosaic, the better it will look. Just squishing in a bunch of rocks in the mortar will make for a very funky looking piece of work. I've seen plenty of this. If that is OK with you then chances are so are Motel paintings in your living room. Try to think of it as an art form rather than a craft project, and shoot for beautiful results. Pebble beaches are good places to look for nicely shaped stones. I look for ones that have a flat top and perpendicular sides so that they will fit up against each other. Avoid collecting in parks and be sensitive to your impact. The pebbles should be fit tightly together, considering their composition and placement. If I am doing a design with lines, I will set up the lines first after I have done the border, and then fill in the outlined spaces with carefully selected stones. On a cool day you can work for as much as 45 minutes before the mortar is too dry to work with. A 5 gallon bucket with some water in it is great for wetting individual stones and for rinsing your gloves if they get covered with mortar. Lotus Stepstones and Wood Form Once all the pebbles are placed, hopefully as flat as possible and not sticking up all over, you can put the sheet of plywood on top and step on it. This forces the pebbles down to the same level and pushes mortar up in between them. Don't do it too hard at first. Lift the panel and check how it looks. Then use a light spray to wash off the displaced mortar and flatten it again. I usually do this a few times or more if I have every thing set just right. You will get in to trouble if you had too much mortar in the form to begin with and it is oozing out all over and the pebbles are moving from their intended place. Don't spray too hard so that you blast out your work either. When you feel like it is flat and presentable and washed to properly expose the finished work, just let it sit for a few days to cure, getting it wet from time to time so that it does so slowly. Then you can unscrew the form and take a screw driver to scrape off the slaggy mortar edge along where the forms were. A well done mosaic doesn't show much mortar, just the lovely pebbles you so painstakingly selected. It might be a pain to do this kind of work, but I have been doing it for many years, and I think it is one of the loveliest forms of pavement imaginable. You could make a series of pavers and then put them together to make a pad, or space them and make a path. If you are ambitious, you can do mosaic work all over your garden. If you do them in place you don't have to move it in to place. If you do this you should put drop cloths over plants and walls as the mortar splatters some when hosing the work off. You will get better at it as you gain experience. After the mosaic has cured for about 25 days you can clean it with Muriatic Acid diluted with 4 parts water. Pour it on and scrub with a nylon bristle brush. It will remove any dulling mortar film left on the pebbles. Be careful using this stuff. Wear rubber gloves and cover your skin, and do not breath the fumes. You can buy it at the local hardware store. Use a flathead screw driver to trim out any unwanted globs of mortar and to smooth the joints. Lotus Step Stone Path in Portland, Oregon I have stood premade panels on end, mortaring them in to walls, and have inbedded flexible copper tubing normally used for ice machines and the like to hook up creating simple fountains. I've built the panels in situ many times in parking strips, and as large stepping pads for wider paths, but I recommend you start small and manageable and moveable until you get the hang of it. Paths made with 14x14" step stones make a lovely small path. One set I built are lotus blossoms, alluding to a Buddhist Jataka Tale about Sidhartha Gautama being born, and having lotus blossoms spring from his footprints. Another is simple alternating bands of black and gold Mexican Beach Pebbles. If you precompose the design you are probably going to make a better stepping stone so I cannot emphasize enough the benefit of knowing what you are about to create. Fit the pebbles tightly together and try to be the best artist you can. Hand selected beach stones fit in to gaps in a mortar set stone parking strip pad Simple bands of colored pebbles in round stepping stones match the mosaic path of a rattle snake between my two houses. The smaller rounds were made in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket. I am currently working on a multi year project on the South Island of New Zealand which will include possibly hundreds of pebble mosaic stepping stones. One of the project's emphasis is the reduction of waste so I am incorporating lots of debris from the site in to the bases of the stepping stones as a way to remove it from the waste stream and act as reinforcement. This has to be carefully done so as not to block the insertion of the stones in to the mortar, but it is a great way to get rid of all kinds of bits of non biodegradable garbage! Debris collected from the work site Debris added to the base of the stepping stone along with rebar for reinforcement The finished stepping stone The limits of what you can do with pebble mosaic are constrained only by your creativity. Good luck to you if you ever decide to try it. You might just impress yourself with your new found ability, and having created something beautiful. 3 Round Medallion mosaics mounted in a fountain wall, Portland Plants encroach on 'The River of Life', an early in situ mosaic in my career Round step stone with marbles, Indonesian Turquoise, Red Montana Rainbow, Black Mexican Beach and center beach stone
How to make a simple pebble mosaic walkway, patio or stepping stones? In our guide we are explaining how to lay pebbles in cement
Easy DIY stepping stones that you can give as a gift or make for yourself for your garden.
A stepping stone made from beautiful rocks collected from rivers and lakeshores on the south island of New Zealand My stepping stone workshop in Glenorchy, New Zealand Gold and Black alternating bands of Mexican Beach Pebbles in Los Angeles The most frequently asked question I get in regards to my mosaic work seems to be "Where do you get your stones?" After that comes the question "Do you ever teach workshops?" I have on occasion taught them but it has been a long time. The reason I quit doing them is that they are truly exhausting. I have to assemble close to two tons of material to teach 20 people my technique. Each person needs a wooden form to build their mosaic in, and then I have to procure the 20 bags of mortar (1,600 pounds) and another ton of sorted pebbles, and we haven't even started the class yet. Reed College ? Mosaic The last one I gave was at Reed College in Portland for the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon. The mosaics were in situ in a parking strip garden in front of the Theater Arts Building off campus. We made a series of theater masks in the themes of Comedy, Tragedy, and Theater of the Absurd. The last title seemed to make the most sense as the mosaics were supposed to be pads for maintenance workers to step on to keep from compacting the soil in the beds. So most of the laboriously constructed mosaics are now buried in vegetation and impossible to see except maybe in winter. I still don't know if anybody in the workshop ever went on to build their own mosaics afterwards. Such is the reward of such endeavors. What I do now is tell people that if they want to try to build a pebble mosaic that they should start with a simple stepping stone. I have built a number of them for a project as part of a trade I am doing with a man who is slowly fabricating wonderful steel structures for my garden. I made 26 18x18" square mosaics for his garden in a simple box made of 2x4's and a square sheet of plywood screwed together with a cordless drill and 2 1/2 inch long screws. The box has two longer pieces of 2x4 on two sides so that I can unscrew the box and tap the boards free after the step stone has cured, which takes about two or three days. I use a framing square to make sure the angles are 90 degrees, and drill shorter screws through the 2x4's in to the plywood to give it rigidity. If you want rounded corners or curves in your shape, I like to use the rolled flexible lawn edging that is normally used between grass and planting beds. This can be used inside the wood form with some blocking if you need it to maintain the desired shape. Wood form, lawn edging and beach rock mosaic Once the box is built, you can mock up a mosaic inside of it. The trickiest part of building a good mosaic is finding the right stones. Most people are too lazy to really do a good job of this and they often ask me if I could sell kits where the stones are already sorted. Sounds like a lot of fun to me, spending hundreds of hours sorting pebbles for other people so that they don't have to. Pay me $100 a pound and I might consider it, but other wise you are on your own. That means going to the beach, or a river, or a stone yard. You can buy bagged pebbles although the selection is usually limited. The most commonly available pebbles are Mexican Beach Pebbles from Baja California, which are gathered by small operations from beaches there. I am amazed that the supply needed to stock stone yards all over the US are still available after decades of sales, but they still seem to come up with them. They used to be only black, in a few sizes, but now you can sometimes find buff gold pebbles and dark red. The black and gold seem to have the most usable shapes though. Dont buy the ones larger than 2 inches as there will be very few usable shapes. Bagged Pebbles at a stone yard in Seattle Montana Rainbow Mix Pebbles I also sort through piles of pebbles in stone yards, a rather joyless and tedious task that requires a meditative will, as it usually takes 3 or 4 hours to sort a couple of 5 gallon buckets worth. You need to wet the pebbles to see the colors since they are usually dirty and all look brown when they are dry. One of my favorite selections is called 'Montana Rainbow Mix', or 'Pame', which I assume comes from Montana. The colors are a blend of pastels, with red and pink being the predominant shades. The Miro mosaics that I wrote a blog about a while back are made mostly from this mix, sorted by color. I also did a Brazilian Carnaval inspired mosaic parking strip for a client that features outlined areas of the various colors. Carnaval Mosaic Panels If you collect from the wild, you should do so with some discretion. No picking in State or National Parks! Not just any shape will work, and the pebbles cant be laid flat like pancakes so that you get more coverage as they will pop out over time. They have to be set on edge, or if they are large, have enough thickness to stay imbedded in the mortar. A great way to proceed is to put some temporary sand in the bottom of your form box, and practice placing the pebbles in the sand. They ideally should be set on edge, so you need pebbles that have a flat top surface and straight sides so they fit tightly together. You will get the hang of it if you do it in sand as you can see what it might look like when you actually set it in mortar. You can even compose the entire mosaic in the sand and then take it apart. If you do this you will know that you have the proper quantity of pebbles to do the job. Chances are your first mosaic is going to be a little funky, and you will learn from experience, so don't do the entrance to your house first thing. An 18x18 inch mosaic that is 3 1/2 inches thick is very heavy and takes two people to move. I like to insert two pieces of 3/8th or 1/2 inch rebar in to the mortar for reinforcement because it sucks when a stepping stone you spent so much time on breaks when you take it out of the form. You can get these already cut at Home Depot, or cut them to length with a hack saw. It takes about 1 and 1/3 80 pound bags of Type S Mortar to fill a box of this size. One bag should work on a 14 x 14 inch step stone and it will be easier to move when it is done. Adjust the quantity if you use 60 pound bags. Do not use concrete mix! It dries out very fast and the stones wont stick. It has to be mortar, which is usually used to set stone or lay bricks. You will need another pieces of plywood a little bigger than the form to lay on top and step on to flatten the work once it is done. The tools needed are pretty low tech. Mixing Mortar in a wheel barrow with a hoe You mix the mortar in a plastic mortar pan or better yet a contractors wheel barrow using a garden hoe. I wear a dust mask when mixing to avoid breathing the dust. Use a squeeze handle spray nozzle on the end of your garden hose to wet the mix. Put some water in the pan or wheel barrow first and then open the bag on one end and dump the contents out, pulling up on the bag. You add more water as you mix until it reaches a stiff pudding like consistency. Dig down to the bottom of the wheel barrow so you don't have pockets of dry mix. Be thorough. If you can stick your finger in the mortar and it maintains the indentation without being too liquid, then you are probably there. If it cracks and looks dry, add a little more water, but be careful as it doesn't take much extra water to make the mortar soupy, and you cant build a good mosaic in a soupy mix. Once it is ready, I scoop it in to the form, wearing rubber gloves, as the mortar is not good to get on your skin. Working bare handed will lead to cracked dried out fingers. You should work in an area that you don't mind making a mess in as you need to hose off the excess mortar when you are finished setting and flattening the mosaic. You can work on a strong table if you want to sit or stand up. I sit on a little plastic stool while I work. Stand up and stretch from time to time or you will become a hunchback. If you have extra mortar you can put it in a bucket and let it dry and then knock it out later, or even make another little mosaic top of that. I have several of these little round bucket mosaics in my garden. A form in place made of flexible lawn edging supported by large 10 inch nails at regular intervals. The base is compacted crushed gravel Mocking up a potential mosaic design with assorted stones collected from Puget Sound beaches Completed mosaic Keep your sorted pebbles in plastic nursery pots and dump them out to pick through them. It is very important that your pebbles be sorted in advance. Once you are working with the wet mortar you need to push on through, no going to pee or answer the phone. Work in the shade unless it is a cloudy day as it will give you more time to work. The mortar will set up a lot quicker on a hot day. You need protection from rain if it is a wet day as it will make soup of your mortar. I push the two pieces of rebar in to the mortar about a half inch from the bottom sheet of plywood. The top level of the mortar should be about a half inch below the top of the form as the pebbles will displace some of the mortar as you set them in. Make sure that none of your pebbles are thicker than the depth of the form itself. Finishing a stepstone at the O'Byrne Garden in Eugene, Oregon You can draw your design in to the mortar with a stick. I like to keep a flat screw driver on hand for this, and to pry out pebbles that didn't go in the way you want them to. Look at each pebble as you put it in so the the best face is forward. Each pebble should be wet (spray them with the nozzle), and imbedded at least an inch in to the mortar or it may pop out later. This can take years to happen. Well imbedded pebbles should stay put for decades. The pebbles along the edge should ideally be set perpendicular to the form so that they don't come off if you step on the edge of the stepping stone later. I like to select shapes for the corners that are squarish and deeply set so they dont break off later. The more conciencious you are building your mosaic, the better it will look. Just squishing in a bunch of rocks in the mortar will make for a very funky looking piece of work. I've seen plenty of this. If that is OK with you then chances are so are Motel paintings in your living room. Try to think of it as an art form rather than a craft project, and shoot for beautiful results. Pebble beaches are good places to look for nicely shaped stones. I look for ones that have a flat top and perpendicular sides so that they will fit up against each other. Avoid collecting in parks and be sensitive to your impact. The pebbles should be fit tightly together, considering their composition and placement. If I am doing a design with lines, I will set up the lines first after I have done the border, and then fill in the outlined spaces with carefully selected stones. On a cool day you can work for as much as 45 minutes before the mortar is too dry to work with. A 5 gallon bucket with some water in it is great for wetting individual stones and for rinsing your gloves if they get covered with mortar. Lotus Stepstones and Wood Form Once all the pebbles are placed, hopefully as flat as possible and not sticking up all over, you can put the sheet of plywood on top and step on it. This forces the pebbles down to the same level and pushes mortar up in between them. Don't do it too hard at first. Lift the panel and check how it looks. Then use a light spray to wash off the displaced mortar and flatten it again. I usually do this a few times or more if I have every thing set just right. You will get in to trouble if you had too much mortar in the form to begin with and it is oozing out all over and the pebbles are moving from their intended place. Don't spray too hard so that you blast out your work either. When you feel like it is flat and presentable and washed to properly expose the finished work, just let it sit for a few days to cure, getting it wet from time to time so that it does so slowly. Then you can unscrew the form and take a screw driver to scrape off the slaggy mortar edge along where the forms were. A well done mosaic doesn't show much mortar, just the lovely pebbles you so painstakingly selected. It might be a pain to do this kind of work, but I have been doing it for many years, and I think it is one of the loveliest forms of pavement imaginable. You could make a series of pavers and then put them together to make a pad, or space them and make a path. If you are ambitious, you can do mosaic work all over your garden. If you do them in place you don't have to move it in to place. If you do this you should put drop cloths over plants and walls as the mortar splatters some when hosing the work off. You will get better at it as you gain experience. After the mosaic has cured for about 25 days you can clean it with Muriatic Acid diluted with 4 parts water. Pour it on and scrub with a nylon bristle brush. It will remove any dulling mortar film left on the pebbles. Be careful using this stuff. Wear rubber gloves and cover your skin, and do not breath the fumes. You can buy it at the local hardware store. Use a flathead screw driver to trim out any unwanted globs of mortar and to smooth the joints. Lotus Step Stone Path in Portland, Oregon I have stood premade panels on end, mortaring them in to walls, and have inbedded flexible copper tubing normally used for ice machines and the like to hook up creating simple fountains. I've built the panels in situ many times in parking strips, and as large stepping pads for wider paths, but I recommend you start small and manageable and moveable until you get the hang of it. Paths made with 14x14" step stones make a lovely small path. One set I built are lotus blossoms, alluding to a Buddhist Jataka Tale about Sidhartha Gautama being born, and having lotus blossoms spring from his footprints. Another is simple alternating bands of black and gold Mexican Beach Pebbles. If you precompose the design you are probably going to make a better stepping stone so I cannot emphasize enough the benefit of knowing what you are about to create. Fit the pebbles tightly together and try to be the best artist you can. Hand selected beach stones fit in to gaps in a mortar set stone parking strip pad Simple bands of colored pebbles in round stepping stones match the mosaic path of a rattle snake between my two houses. The smaller rounds were made in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket. I am currently working on a multi year project on the South Island of New Zealand which will include possibly hundreds of pebble mosaic stepping stones. One of the project's emphasis is the reduction of waste so I am incorporating lots of debris from the site in to the bases of the stepping stones as a way to remove it from the waste stream and act as reinforcement. This has to be carefully done so as not to block the insertion of the stones in to the mortar, but it is a great way to get rid of all kinds of bits of non biodegradable garbage! Debris collected from the work site Debris added to the base of the stepping stone along with rebar for reinforcement The finished stepping stone The limits of what you can do with pebble mosaic are constrained only by your creativity. Good luck to you if you ever decide to try it. You might just impress yourself with your new found ability, and having created something beautiful. 3 Round Medallion mosaics mounted in a fountain wall, Portland Plants encroach on 'The River of Life', an early in situ mosaic in my career Round step stone with marbles, Indonesian Turquoise, Red Montana Rainbow, Black Mexican Beach and center beach stone
Love the natural look of rocks and pebbles in home decor? If so, then you have to see these DIY ideas made with stones and rock. Cool and easy crafts to decorate your home on a budget, but with flair, you are sure to find one or more to make this weekend in this list
I often get asked how to make a mosaic stepping stone, so in today's 'How to Mosaic' I'm detailing the process involved.
Scraps of stained glass and tile from other projects can be saved up and used to make a mosaic stepping stone following the steps in this tutorial.
How to create projects that include patios, walkways and stepping stones with pebble mosaic using relatively inexpensive materials.
Moreover if you going to use DIY stepping stones you can actually tailor them through your refugee, you can use a personal design that means more to you than a block of concrete .
DIY mosaic garden stepping stones are easy to create. This can be a project for one, a group, or the whole family.
Local basalt and river stones mortared together to make stepping stones between two houses I've been building gardens for over 30 years now. Most of my work has been residential and often involves the removal of lawns and generic hardscapes so that I can replace them with something more inviting and complimentary to the natural world. If you aren't going to be walking around the house on a lawn anymore, then you'll need a path. A path takes you somewhere. I try to make that journey an interesting one, something that you will pay attention to, that changes the way you feel. Life is a path in itself, and by choice I've followed an interesting one, marked by moments of unfathonable beauty. If possible I try to translate those sensations in to my work. Lets take a walk. The entrance to Randy McChormach's Portland garden emulates a creek that flows from a hot spring at a cabin they own in Eastern Oregon I've been working with stone for a long time, so I've built a lot of stone paths. My first stonework was at my own home, using rock that I scavenged from old abandoned quarries in the hills outside of Portland. These were usually sources of stone that would be crushed to make road beds for highway construction. Basalt stones laid flat in fine crushed gravel form 3 rectangles leading to the side of the house. I hadn't worked with river rock yet, but after a trip to Spain and Portugal I was exposed to pebble mosaic and began to incorporate naturally water smoothed rock in to my work. It kind of took over my career eventually, although I prefer to work with plants. These small pebble mosaic stepping stones lead to a hose faucet. I built them without forms, just pressing the pebbles in to a flattened mound of wet mortar and then carefully leveling them with a piece of plywood. I called them pebble cakes at the time. Split basalt makes a nice solid stepping stone. These are at Marenakos Stone outside of Seattle. I quit doing lawns years ago, removing them rather than installing them. A path through a beautifully planted garden is way more interesting to me than a swath of grass. When you get rid of the lawn, you don't have to mow anymore, and your neighbors don't have to listen to a lawn mower every week! Nature benefits from the shelter and sustinance provided by biological diversity. A once grass covered parking strip is now a diverse garden of heat and drought tolerant plants with mosaic stepping stones connecting the sidewalk to the street. In this garden in the Beaumont neighborhood of Northeast Portland I built a set of stepping stones in 18 inch square forms that represent lotus blossoms. The idea comes from the Jataka tales, the story of the life of Buddha. When he first walked as a baby, lotuses sprung from his footsteps. You see literal depictions of this tale sometimes in sacred Buddhist shrines, most notably at Bodhgaya in India at the place the Buddha attained enlightenment. Finished stepping stones in their forms So the idea for this path is that you can conciously tap in to an enlightened state of being if you are perceptive and aware. Each step is a meditation as you walk through the garden. In Japanese and Chinese gardens paths are often built with intention in mind. I could post a zillion photos of paths that have inspired me but I am going to stick to my own work to keep from writing a novel. Lotus stepping stones inspired by the Jataka Tales from Buddha's life The most readily available material in my early years as a garden builder were split basalt slabs from a huge quarry on the Washington side of the Columbia River near the town of Camas. Stone is blasted from the slopes and then manually split in an arduous process of drilling and jackhammering large chunks of rock in to usable slabs. They are nice and thick and very heavy, and often not perfectly flat. I spent many hours picking through piles of heavy stone for the best pieces. Clients rarely fully understand how intensly laborious this kind of work is. A basalt slab path connects the front and back gardens of a suburban house in Lake Oswego, Oregon. The stones are arranged to be picturesque and to slow the pace that a straight line of stones might not encourage. Back then I was able to drive in to the quarry and pull unprocessed blocks of stone from the slopes. A lot of my work was in the suburbs where houses were built on scraped hillsides leaving barren inaccessible yards with terrible subsoil. I was young and strong and under the influence of old European gardens with stone paths and terraces, constructed by generations of hardy stone masons. The stones I was able to collect at the quarry were special in that they had split naturally and had substancial dimensions. I was young and very strong. Eventually liability restricted my access to the quarries and stone vendors were starting to set up shop in the region, so I quit going directly to the quarry. Heavy natural slabs of basalt make inviting steps up a retaining wall. I mortared the stones together but in a way that the mortar doesn't show. Gravel makes the easiest path to install. It can be crushed or rounded pea gravel. I prefer 3/4 inch river rock to pea gravel as it is larger and less apt to stick to your shoes and feet and get tracked around. A gravel path should be fairly level so that you don't slip on it. Crushed gravel is essential if there is a slope. You just wheelbarrow it, dump it and rake it smooth and hose it off. A wide gravel path on a level terrace. For years I built staggered basalt stepping stone paths down the narrow strips between houses and anywhere a path was needed, to get to a hose faucet, a garage door, a storage shed. The work was brutal but fairly quick and affordable. I was known as the guy who liked the largest slabs, which I would dig through the piles, moving tons of rock to find and then wrestle up ramps in to my battered truck. Basalt slabs winding through a forest garden in Lake Oswego American gardens usually get a slab of white concrete for a patio and strips paths down the sides between the houses. Sometimes budget constraints required recycling the concrete I was breaking up in to a more interesting path. Hauling away heavy waste material is laborious so I often found creative ways to recycle it back in to the garden, sometimes using it to thicken a mortared wall with a stone face and occasionally for paths. Recycled concrete is sometimes referred to as Urbanite. I broke a narrow concrete path between two houses in to rectangles and then rearranged them with bands of large river stones to create a more inviting garden path My garden has always been my guinea pig for exploring new ways of using materials and plants. I taught myself how to lay stone here, to work with mortar, and I developed the techniques I use today for building pebble mosaics surrounding my home. I had time to build things that took many years to complete. I inherited the usual concrete paths to the front steps and around the sides of the house. I recycled the concrete in to my walls as back fill and began replacing the paths and steps with stone work. The front of the Crack House (I still call it that) when I first bought and started working on it. I created a mosaic with a pair of eyes for the threshold. I had spent parts of 3 winters in Nepal and loved the Buddha eyes painted on stupas there. But it is bad form to walk on Buddha's eyes, so I made the eyes at the entrance to my garden green, like mine. I live in a former Crack House and the property had a tumultuous and sometimes violent history. A man was killed here in a drive by shooting before I bought it. I was living in the house net door at the time. So my eyes now watch over the entrance to my home. Up the steps I built a landing with a Tibetan endless knot. This represents Samsara, the endless cycle of life and death and its infinite potential. This mosaic turned out to be kind of wonky and off center but moss has softened and partially obscured it over time so this is less obvious. My eyes and a Tibetan endless knot mosaic The original concrete walk between my two houses. The rattlesnake path that runs between my two houses took 7 years to build. That was mainly because it took so long to collect the specific colors and shapes of stones I needed. There is an island in the Colombia River where pebbles come up through the sand when the river drops in Summer. I would beach comb for gold quartzite and black basalt, red jasper and white speckled granite. Uniform shapes are needed to create the even bands in the design. I needed thousands of these for the 35 foot long mosaic. Beginning what would become a 7 year project. I chose a native Western Rattlesnake for the design because it is a symbol of protection and they shed their skin as they grow. I've always felt a sense of awe when I see them in the wild, not as menacing but as quiet, shy, camouflaged magical creatures. They are carved in to temples in Mexico to guard gateways and slither as a shadow down pyramids on Solstices. 7 headed cobras, called Nagas wrap around the temples at Angkor in Cambodia, again prividing a border of protection. My house has never been broken in to, so there may be something to this. The Western Rattlesnake path leading from my front entry around the corner of the house. My garden is very small, so mosaics bring a level of detail that makes it feel bigger by drawing your attention to it's intricacies. The wavy edge of the path makes it look much longer than a straight line would, and the pebbles massage my feet when I walk on them barefoot. As I proceeded towards the back of the house I felt the need to end the first rattlesnake as it was losing its biological accuracy. I wanted the mosaic to depict a real Western Rattlesnake, not be an characature of it. So to finish the path I created a more tightly coiled baby snake at the other end who would receive you when coming from the back. It wasn't easy to build but turned out nicely. Baby Rattlesnake completed 7 years later. In front of the house on the other side of the entrance I built a Persian prayer rug that leads to a beautiful statue of a Buddha that I bought from a master carver's shop in Bhubaneswar, India. This mosaic took 2 years to collect the stones I needed. Large river stones make an informal path to get me from there around the corner of the house in that direction. Prayer rug and Buddha in my front garden. I was able to take down the fence between the two gardens when I bought the boarded up Crack House next door, and built a connecting path with nice slabs of orange oxydized basalt I had collected over the years. I'm gradually replacing parts of this path with mosaic medallions made of stones I've been gathering on my travels in the US and around the world. They remind me of the places I've been and the experiences I had there. That is something you don't get from buying rock from a supply yard. You need to be discreet and conscious when collecting stone from the wild, leaving no trace. Opening up and connecting my two gardens. The garden has obviously changed dramatically over the years as I built my well known altar wall and the plants I added have matured. One of the stepping stones I built using pieces I collected over a year, including ones from Egypt, Jordan, and Israel. When you design and build a garden it can be tailored to the space rather than plunked down according to what's on a plan. I like to mock up the spaces I'm working in so that I can fine tune it in real time. I end up doing simple drawings just to give clients a conceptual idea of what I am hoping to accomplish. A simple sketch of a patio and path design. My work is dependent on the materials I am able to procure. I will spread out a pallet of flagstones that I can trim and shape with a diamond blade stone cutting blade mounted in a large size angle grinder. I can lay out the stones to the desired arrangement and fill in gaps with handpicked river rock after I've set the larger stones, making sure that everything is flat. A basalt slab and pebble mosaic mimics a stream flowing between boulders for the entrance to this West Hills Portland home. A basalt stepping stone path takes you in to the sloped garden from the entry path. I used the same basalt material used to edge the mosaic entry to the home. The slab stepping stones become a staircase leading down the slope to the lower parts of the garden. Sometimes I was able to buy really thick slabs that we muscled in to place using pry bars, to create substantial steps. I avoid these types of projects now unless the budget allows for craning large stones in to place. Large slabs of basalt built in to a retaining wall lead to a patio at the top of the slope. I worked with an assistant named Henry Mansfield for several years who had the enthusiams to saw cut and shape basalt to fit tightly together. The gardens we constructed as a team were always laborious endeavors. In one garden in the West Hills of Portland we built a low seat height wall that mirrored the shape of the house, and framed the entry court in basalt with a natural winding zen stepping stone path surrounded by gravel to create an integration between the architecture of the house and the natural forest garden beyond. A seat height wall frames an entry court with a stepping stone path leading to the front entrance. The paving is entirely permeable. I got tired of using basalt because I didn't love the grey color, and the variety of material sold at stone yards was becoming more diverse. More generous budgets allowed for using bluestone imported from the East Coast of the US. I used beautiful sandstone that comes in a variety of colors, mixed with pebble mosaic for clients with more adventurous tastes. I called the multicolored curving entry walk and steps I built to Randy McChormach's Southeast Portland home the Candyland Walk because of its colorful compostion. The walkway has become famous on the internet and Randy is a fastidious gardener who maintains her place in immaculate condition, something that is frustratingly rare amongst clients. What I call the Candyland walk and steps leads to the front door. You used to have to squeeze past cars in the driveway to reach the front porch. Another garden in the Irvington neighborhood of Portland was built in phases over a number of years. The Goodfriends had spent time in Barcelona, Spain and loved the paintings of Joan Miro, which became the theme for a patio and later paths in the front garden. In one phase I removed the old cracked concrete entry path and built a set of wide pads framed in local Mollala basalt with pebble mosaic veins that related to the patio mosaic in the back garden. The original walkway, which I removed. The design allows for permeability, with gaps to allow for water to percolate in to the ground rather than run off to the street. I laid out the basalt flagstones in frames made with 2x4's which were later removed. Once the flagstones were set I filled in the gaps with pebble mosaic. When the work was finished the spaces between the pads were filled with potting soil and planted with Baby's Tears, Soleirolia soleirolii, a flat bright green ground cover. The finished entryway is divided in to panels to allow for permeability and to break up the expanse of paving. There are stepping stone pads leading from the entry to both sides of the house. We recycled the broken concrete by jack hammering it in to stepping stone size pieces with stone like shapes to make paths in less prominent areas beside the house. Building a stepping stone path to connect the entry to the former driveway. The driveway to the house was steep and too narrow to use for parking. The beautiful but sagging garage in the back of this handsome home was torn down to create a more spacious back garden, so we decided to break up the old cracked driveway. We jackhammered the pavement in to nice square panels which we then relayed for a generous path surrounded by leftover pebbles I sorted to build the mosaics with. Jackhammering out the old driveway Relaying the best slabs of old concrete to make a permeable path connecting the front garden to the back patio mosaic. Later we removed the sloped part of the driveway and I built a set of sets laid out to have a zen Japanese feel after my clients made a trip to Kyoto. These steps were built to connect the driveway to the entry The former driveway replaced with an inviting set of steps Every project is different and requires a personalized design that best resolves the needs of the property. Incorporating imported from the east coast raises the carbon footprint of a project significantly but the smooth flatness of the stone is great for situations that call for it. I've worked on a number of historically significant homes, some of them on the National Register of Historic Places. One of these homes, a Craftsman Bungalow in the Ladds Addition neighborhood of Portland needed a low retaining wall along the sidewalk and a new entry walk to the house. The river rock wall curves in to the walkway and forms a pedastle for a Craftsman style lantern. The flagstone is called Peacock stone as there are shades of purple in the variegation. I added small spiral mosaics to represent the four seasons in to the step landing and veins of hand picked flat topped river rock. Flat topped river rocks frame the flagstones and fill gaps, integrating the river rock wall in to the paving. One of four spirals in the landing of the entry path. At another historic residence on Alameda Ridge in Portland I replaced the old concrete walk with a generous path using cut bluestone squares set as diamonds. A matching mosaic and bluestone panel connects the front entry path to the street. The family name is Rowan and the Rowan tree, a Mountain Ash, Sorbus aucuparia was historically used to carve staffs used in healing rituals in ancient Germanic Rhunic cultures. There are a number of Rhunic alphabets including the Elder Futhark, which consists of 24 symbols which I made in pebble mosaics leading to the grand chimney of the house, where I created a Rowan Tree mosaic with characteristic red berries and a petrified wood trunk and branches. The 24 letters of the Elder Futhark Rhunic alphabet The Rowan Tree I spelled out the name Rowan in the diamonds in front of the entry steps. The entry is expansive and the budget required limiting the amount of pebble sorting so I used a full range of mixed pebbles normally used for decorative mulching that is imported from Montana. The path splits at the Rowan Tree, the left side leading to the front entry steps. The side path going to the covered porch is much less prominent so that guests are directed to the front door. I like how this simple path curves around the corner. I later built a set of round stepping stones leading from the driveway to a fancy picket fenced dog kennel incorporating paw prints in to the design. Paw prints in round stepping stones leading to a dog kennel The first historic house I worked on was in NW Portland has a well known Persian carpet styled patio and pebble mosaic parking strip panels. A path of 3x3 foot squares flows from the entry landing to the patio. I made a wavy pattern of lines to emulate water flowing and called the path "The River of Life". The plantings have filled in around the square panels softening the look. The River of Life Path The later addition of a garage built in to the slope behind the house involved pouring graphite tinted concrete, which I find much more appealing than bright white concrete. The roof of the garage is paved in cut stone tiles, so I had insets formed in to the concrete work so that I could lay complimentary panels of cut stone to decorate the paving. Cut stone inlaid in to a poured tinted concrete path. The garden of another stately home in the Piedmont neighborhood of Portland became a project I had wanted to work on for years. The distinctive home is made of cast concrete to look like stone and was billed as a house that wouldn't burn, since most houses in Oregon are made of wood. The 3 story round tower explains the nickname that kids give the house around Halloween, of Dracula's Castle. The house was undergoing extensive restoration and the gardens needed a lot of attention from inappropriate installations over the years. Because the house was concrete, I opted to use inexpensive concrete 24x24 inch pavers with bands of pebble mosaic for the patio and walkways. The historic Jenny Bramhall House in NE Portland's Piedmont neighborhood got a simple new entry walk with bands of Mexican Beach Pebbles set on edge. The landing widens to connect to the wide steps. The entry walkway connects to a straight path that turns at a right angle beyond the balustraded porch, which was totally rebuilt with cast replicas of the original decaying ones. A Thai spirit house sits at the turn of the path, centered on the axis viewed from the patio, which has the same grid pattern. A simple walkway composed of two 24x24 inch concrete pavers with a band of Mexican Beach Pebbles takes you around the corner of the house. A tessalated Moroccan design pebble mosaic sits in a small square patio by a fountain midway down the side path and can be viewed from above on the terrace. An 8 pointed star in a Moroccan style mosaic ornaments a small patio centered on a path leading to the main patio. Later on a parking area was added for two cars that could be used as a patio during events. The same grid pattern was poured in the reinforced concrete, and wide steps and a pad with the same design leads up to steps in to a side door. Originally there was supposed to be a colonade that matched the house on the square plinths in the wall around the parking court but this was never finished. A parking area doubles as courtyard patio with wide steps and a landing leading to the house and garden. I worked for several years on another stately home in the Hancock Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. I was originally commissioned to build two mosaics but later renovated the design of the garden to take it to another level. Part of this was removing a most of the lawns and replacing them with drought tolerant plants and to eliminate the need for mow and blow maintenance, which involved terrible pruning work. I made simple stepping stones with concentric squares of alternating black and gold Mexican beach pebbles that lead to an Indonesian tea pavilion and a gated area behind the garage where the pool equipment was located. I surrounded the stepping stones with Del Rio pebbles and set a collection of pots containing bromeliads under the canopy of a large Leptospermum tree tht had a significant root system, which made it difficult to grow plants in the ground. Stepping stones leading from the outdoor kitchen to the tea house and pool equipment storage area. I continued to add to the garden over the years. When we removed an inset trampoline to make a sunken garden, I made a set of 3x3 foot square mosaic pads leading to the pebble mosaic steps in to the round depression. Large square mosaic step pads lead to the Sunken Garden The last project was to remove the thirsty lawn in front and install a dry garden with a collection of plants inspired by the gardens at Lotusland in Montecito. I trimmed to shape large sandstone pavers to create a path connecting the driveway to the entry walk and a bench. I planted Dymondia around the stepping stones, a durable flat ground cover that wont grow over the edge of the stones that has yellow daisy like flowers when in bloom. Shaped sandstone stepping stones leads across the front garden. A friend of these clients hired me to renovate the front of her home nearby. The budget was modest but I was able to maximize the effect by using large sandstone pavers once again. I trimmed the corners to make softer shapes, reminiscent of the look from Flintstone cartoons I used to watch when I was a child. Large sandstone stepping stones enhance the setting of this cute stucco house off Wilshire in Los Angeles The same clients I worked for over the years in LA hired me to do their garden in Chilmark on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. The house underwent a substantial addition and needed new paths and steps. Because it is an island all of the materials had to be shipped there by ferry. I was able to buy beautiful old granite curbs for steps and several pallets of bluestone for the paths. Again I trimmed the stones to have softer corners and arranged them in to picturesque arrangements. Heavy equipment was handy for placing boulders. Martha's Vineyard has a distinctive style that I tried to compliment. Unfortunately rowdy dogs reaped havok on the garden after I left, digging deep holes all over the place, and the potential of the place never happened, but the hardscape bones of the garden remained largely intact. 2 sets of stairs designed by the architect seemed unnecessary but required two paths to connect them to the garden. Old granite curbs from Vermont make wonderful steps. An old picket gate leads to a Secret Garden circle made of bricks I relayed that had long since been buried by time. I returned a few years later and attempted to rejuvinate the garden, and built a picket fenced cutting garden that would be safe from the dogs who had destroyed much of the earlier planting. I had leftover bricks which I used to make step pads leading to a bird bath at the center of the cutting garden. Bricks set on a mortar pad with pebbles added for detail lead in to the cutting garden. I like making round mandalas, and had the opportunity to do a commission on Fire Island in New York. All of the materials had to be delivered to the island by ferry with no idea what we would be building. Because the project was not focused on any particular result I ended up making mandalas with what we had on hand. First I built a simple step with a spiral incorporated in to it, alluding to the turning and expanding of the Universe. This takes you from a boardwalk entry to the path around the house. A spiral mosaic step leads down to a permeable path made of a variety of stones set in fine gravel. A round mandala marks a turn in the path. The Halls Hill Labyrinth was by far the most profound project I have worked on to date, and is the most used path I have constructed. The 11 circuit path winds in and out in the style of the famed Chartes Cathedral labyrinth with the addition of a vast amount of additional symbolism. There are a series of essays on this project at https://jeffreygardens.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-halls-hill-labyrinth-essay.html Its even been listed on the Washington Trails Association website. https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-reports/trip_report.2015-05-28.7585165232 The Halls Hill Labyrinth is one of the largest stone mosaics in the United States. After I finished the Labyrinth project I was commisioned to build a meditation path of round stepping stones using left over stones I had collected up north for a Portland area yoga teacher. The goal was to create 108 step pads so that she could do a circumambulation of her house barefoot, while creating a Tibetan mala necklace around the building, but the project was never completed. Flexible plastic lawn edging used to form round mosaic pads. Large nails hold them in place. The forms are removed after the mortar has set. Stepping stones and a carpet of Japanese Maple leaves in November Mala step pads forming a necklace around half of this house.To learn how to make these stepping stones you can find detailed instructions at https://jeffreygardens.blogspot.com/2011/08/building-pebble-mosaic-stepping-stone.html I traveled to New Zealand three times and spent over a year working on the Living Building Challenge rated project at Camp Glenorchy. Origianlly commissioned to develop mosaics that emulated the braided rivers that flow from glaciers in to Lake Wakatipu near the town, I embarked on an intesnive series of projects, much of it creating paths to connect the various parts of the project. Not all of them turned out the way I had envisioned them but some of the work is quite beautiful. Because the site was fully under construction the first year I ended up building over 100 mandala stepping stones meant to mimic the endless number of stars visible in the clear night skies there. A large solar mandala I made to celebrate the Summer Solstice for the Southern Hemisphere. As exposed aggregate paths were poured during my absence, these mandalas were incorporated in to important points in the path system, such as intersections, creating a celestial necklace around the camp. The mandalas were often made from stones I collected in the region as geologic samplers of what you would find in specific locations. I left them on pallets with numbers corresponding to a plan so that their placement would be oriented to the direction from which the stones came. Mosaic mandalas I left behind to be placed in the paths during my absence over the winter. Mandala placed at the intersection of paths. Many stepping stones went in to the graveled area in front of Mrs. Wooly's General Store, a popular market and gathering place across the street from the camp. Mosaic stepping stones set in gravel lead to a potting shed and a parking area behind it. Others were meant to create geologically significant paths to cabins, surrounded by beautiful river stones I collected from the vast wilds outside of town. I wanted to recreate the experience of walking along the lake shore and rivers in the camp. Unfinished path meant to connect to the Rees and Dart Rivers. Health and safety regulations were to be the bane of me. Although people come from all over the world to hike in these glorious mountains, bureaucracy dictates that there be no trip hazards. When I returned the following Spring I found my beautiful paths set in poorly executed exposed aggregate paths wide enough to drive a car on. The results were not to my liking. Mandala path turned in to a driveway. I also built a series of landings at the entrance to various cabins to add to their individual identities. Some were like rivers, and others geologic formations, or celestial skies. While I was gone they decided that there could be no step from the cabin decks to the connecting path, only ramps. So several landings I built had to be dug up and lifted. The mandala paths were set in concrete, completely changing the intended look and eliminating permeability. Braided River mosaic landing Starry Night mosaic landing detail Lancewood cabin landing connected to a boardwalk Flower mosaic landing using saw cut stones. My main contribution to the camp was to be braided river inspired paths. I built two different sets, one representing the Rees River and the other the larger Dart River. The Rees River mosaic runs from the parking area through a breezeway at the entrance to the Homestead lodge building and on to the Scheelite campfire shelter. I used large amounts of stone that I cut on a rock saw as I needed thousands of them and cutting revealed the beautiful green interiors of various schist stones that I collected in great quantities. The braided river islands were made with cut granite giving the white appearance of gravel bars like I had seen from the helicopter rides I had taken over the rivers. Braiding of the Dart and Rees Rivers flowing towards Lake Wakatipu. I could drive in my 4 wheel drive Ute pickup out on to the vast river beds to collect stone, which changes every year during high water levels. When these paths were poured they formed indentations for me to fill in with mosaic work. The Rees River mosaic is about 100 feet long! Path ready for the arduous task of filling in with mosaic It took me several weeks to complete this project, while working simultaniously on others. Working my way down the path The finished Rees River path The Dart River path starts on a half circle terrace outside the Conservatory and runs through the Homestead Building to the Greenstone Room, and out through the back terrace to a curved wood bridge over a gray water treatment wetland. The floors inside the building were polished and the cut stone is gorgeous. The start of the Dart River mosaic on a terrace outside the Conservatory. Polishing the Braided River floor in the Greenstone Room The Dart River mosaic connecting to the bridge over the wetland. I finished these mosaics and built the Geologic Wall inside the Conservatory, and began construction of Garden in front of the building. There was so much concrete work at the camp that I begged to be able to do a garden that looked more like it was part of the breathtaking landscapes of the surrounding region. The finest schist stone in New Zealand comes from the Dart River Valley and the owners of the quarries on the vast Paradise sheep station were willing to sell us magnificent slabs of stone to build the path with. I wanted to create a garden that felt like you were out in the natural countryside. All the plants used at the camp are native to New Zealand, though not necessarily to this particular region. We had a nursery full of potbound plants waiting to get in to the ground including lots of grasses and sedges to make it feel like the edge of a meadow. The Homestead Building before the gardens were created. I had spent so much time out in the wilds collecting and observing the natural landscapes that I was permeated with it. Building the garden was one of my favorite parts of my year there and was an opportunity to express an understanding of the wilds of Glenorchy in a creative manifestation. I used cut stones to make a beautiful strip along the curb so people wouldn't have to step in to the planting beds that distracts your eye from the expanse of grey pavers in the entry drive and parking area. I even built a ramp for wheelchairs which works beautifully in an unorthadox way. I laid the paths so that it would feel like you were hiking up in to the mountains in the distance, and planted it so that the adjacent road would be screened. It seems to have grown in nicely from these photos taken by friends who have visited since I left. As the gardens have grown in it is looking like what I had hoped it would. I continue to build paths in to my 60's. When will it end? Life is a journey and I want to make sure it is an interesting one. Sometimes we stumble and sometimes its hard, but hopefully we can find a beautiful and meaningful route to embark upon. Thanks for reading, Jeffrey
Moreover if you going to use DIY stepping stones you can actually tailor them through your refugee, you can use a personal design that means more to you than a block of concrete .
A stepping stone made from beautiful rocks collected from rivers and lakeshores on the south island of New Zealand My stepping stone workshop in Glenorchy, New Zealand Gold and Black alternating bands of Mexican Beach Pebbles in Los Angeles The most frequently asked question I get in regards to my mosaic work seems to be "Where do you get your stones?" After that comes the question "Do you ever teach workshops?" I have on occasion taught them but it has been a long time. The reason I quit doing them is that they are truly exhausting. I have to assemble close to two tons of material to teach 20 people my technique. Each person needs a wooden form to build their mosaic in, and then I have to procure the 20 bags of mortar (1,600 pounds) and another ton of sorted pebbles, and we haven't even started the class yet. Reed College ? Mosaic The last one I gave was at Reed College in Portland for the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon. The mosaics were in situ in a parking strip garden in front of the Theater Arts Building off campus. We made a series of theater masks in the themes of Comedy, Tragedy, and Theater of the Absurd. The last title seemed to make the most sense as the mosaics were supposed to be pads for maintenance workers to step on to keep from compacting the soil in the beds. So most of the laboriously constructed mosaics are now buried in vegetation and impossible to see except maybe in winter. I still don't know if anybody in the workshop ever went on to build their own mosaics afterwards. Such is the reward of such endeavors. What I do now is tell people that if they want to try to build a pebble mosaic that they should start with a simple stepping stone. I have built a number of them for a project as part of a trade I am doing with a man who is slowly fabricating wonderful steel structures for my garden. I made 26 18x18" square mosaics for his garden in a simple box made of 2x4's and a square sheet of plywood screwed together with a cordless drill and 2 1/2 inch long screws. The box has two longer pieces of 2x4 on two sides so that I can unscrew the box and tap the boards free after the step stone has cured, which takes about two or three days. I use a framing square to make sure the angles are 90 degrees, and drill shorter screws through the 2x4's in to the plywood to give it rigidity. If you want rounded corners or curves in your shape, I like to use the rolled flexible lawn edging that is normally used between grass and planting beds. This can be used inside the wood form with some blocking if you need it to maintain the desired shape. Wood form, lawn edging and beach rock mosaic Once the box is built, you can mock up a mosaic inside of it. The trickiest part of building a good mosaic is finding the right stones. Most people are too lazy to really do a good job of this and they often ask me if I could sell kits where the stones are already sorted. Sounds like a lot of fun to me, spending hundreds of hours sorting pebbles for other people so that they don't have to. Pay me $100 a pound and I might consider it, but other wise you are on your own. That means going to the beach, or a river, or a stone yard. You can buy bagged pebbles although the selection is usually limited. The most commonly available pebbles are Mexican Beach Pebbles from Baja California, which are gathered by small operations from beaches there. I am amazed that the supply needed to stock stone yards all over the US are still available after decades of sales, but they still seem to come up with them. They used to be only black, in a few sizes, but now you can sometimes find buff gold pebbles and dark red. The black and gold seem to have the most usable shapes though. Dont buy the ones larger than 2 inches as there will be very few usable shapes. Bagged Pebbles at a stone yard in Seattle Montana Rainbow Mix Pebbles I also sort through piles of pebbles in stone yards, a rather joyless and tedious task that requires a meditative will, as it usually takes 3 or 4 hours to sort a couple of 5 gallon buckets worth. You need to wet the pebbles to see the colors since they are usually dirty and all look brown when they are dry. One of my favorite selections is called 'Montana Rainbow Mix', or 'Pame', which I assume comes from Montana. The colors are a blend of pastels, with red and pink being the predominant shades. The Miro mosaics that I wrote a blog about a while back are made mostly from this mix, sorted by color. I also did a Brazilian Carnaval inspired mosaic parking strip for a client that features outlined areas of the various colors. Carnaval Mosaic Panels If you collect from the wild, you should do so with some discretion. No picking in State or National Parks! Not just any shape will work, and the pebbles cant be laid flat like pancakes so that you get more coverage as they will pop out over time. They have to be set on edge, or if they are large, have enough thickness to stay imbedded in the mortar. A great way to proceed is to put some temporary sand in the bottom of your form box, and practice placing the pebbles in the sand. They ideally should be set on edge, so you need pebbles that have a flat top surface and straight sides so they fit tightly together. You will get the hang of it if you do it in sand as you can see what it might look like when you actually set it in mortar. You can even compose the entire mosaic in the sand and then take it apart. If you do this you will know that you have the proper quantity of pebbles to do the job. Chances are your first mosaic is going to be a little funky, and you will learn from experience, so don't do the entrance to your house first thing. An 18x18 inch mosaic that is 3 1/2 inches thick is very heavy and takes two people to move. I like to insert two pieces of 3/8th or 1/2 inch rebar in to the mortar for reinforcement because it sucks when a stepping stone you spent so much time on breaks when you take it out of the form. You can get these already cut at Home Depot, or cut them to length with a hack saw. It takes about 1 and 1/3 80 pound bags of Type S Mortar to fill a box of this size. One bag should work on a 14 x 14 inch step stone and it will be easier to move when it is done. Adjust the quantity if you use 60 pound bags. Do not use concrete mix! It dries out very fast and the stones wont stick. It has to be mortar, which is usually used to set stone or lay bricks. You will need another pieces of plywood a little bigger than the form to lay on top and step on to flatten the work once it is done. The tools needed are pretty low tech. Mixing Mortar in a wheel barrow with a hoe You mix the mortar in a plastic mortar pan or better yet a contractors wheel barrow using a garden hoe. I wear a dust mask when mixing to avoid breathing the dust. Use a squeeze handle spray nozzle on the end of your garden hose to wet the mix. Put some water in the pan or wheel barrow first and then open the bag on one end and dump the contents out, pulling up on the bag. You add more water as you mix until it reaches a stiff pudding like consistency. Dig down to the bottom of the wheel barrow so you don't have pockets of dry mix. Be thorough. If you can stick your finger in the mortar and it maintains the indentation without being too liquid, then you are probably there. If it cracks and looks dry, add a little more water, but be careful as it doesn't take much extra water to make the mortar soupy, and you cant build a good mosaic in a soupy mix. Once it is ready, I scoop it in to the form, wearing rubber gloves, as the mortar is not good to get on your skin. Working bare handed will lead to cracked dried out fingers. You should work in an area that you don't mind making a mess in as you need to hose off the excess mortar when you are finished setting and flattening the mosaic. You can work on a strong table if you want to sit or stand up. I sit on a little plastic stool while I work. Stand up and stretch from time to time or you will become a hunchback. If you have extra mortar you can put it in a bucket and let it dry and then knock it out later, or even make another little mosaic top of that. I have several of these little round bucket mosaics in my garden. A form in place made of flexible lawn edging supported by large 10 inch nails at regular intervals. The base is compacted crushed gravel Mocking up a potential mosaic design with assorted stones collected from Puget Sound beaches Completed mosaic Keep your sorted pebbles in plastic nursery pots and dump them out to pick through them. It is very important that your pebbles be sorted in advance. Once you are working with the wet mortar you need to push on through, no going to pee or answer the phone. Work in the shade unless it is a cloudy day as it will give you more time to work. The mortar will set up a lot quicker on a hot day. You need protection from rain if it is a wet day as it will make soup of your mortar. I push the two pieces of rebar in to the mortar about a half inch from the bottom sheet of plywood. The top level of the mortar should be about a half inch below the top of the form as the pebbles will displace some of the mortar as you set them in. Make sure that none of your pebbles are thicker than the depth of the form itself. Finishing a stepstone at the O'Byrne Garden in Eugene, Oregon You can draw your design in to the mortar with a stick. I like to keep a flat screw driver on hand for this, and to pry out pebbles that didn't go in the way you want them to. Look at each pebble as you put it in so the the best face is forward. Each pebble should be wet (spray them with the nozzle), and imbedded at least an inch in to the mortar or it may pop out later. This can take years to happen. Well imbedded pebbles should stay put for decades. The pebbles along the edge should ideally be set perpendicular to the form so that they don't come off if you step on the edge of the stepping stone later. I like to select shapes for the corners that are squarish and deeply set so they dont break off later. The more conciencious you are building your mosaic, the better it will look. Just squishing in a bunch of rocks in the mortar will make for a very funky looking piece of work. I've seen plenty of this. If that is OK with you then chances are so are Motel paintings in your living room. Try to think of it as an art form rather than a craft project, and shoot for beautiful results. Pebble beaches are good places to look for nicely shaped stones. I look for ones that have a flat top and perpendicular sides so that they will fit up against each other. Avoid collecting in parks and be sensitive to your impact. The pebbles should be fit tightly together, considering their composition and placement. If I am doing a design with lines, I will set up the lines first after I have done the border, and then fill in the outlined spaces with carefully selected stones. On a cool day you can work for as much as 45 minutes before the mortar is too dry to work with. A 5 gallon bucket with some water in it is great for wetting individual stones and for rinsing your gloves if they get covered with mortar. Lotus Stepstones and Wood Form Once all the pebbles are placed, hopefully as flat as possible and not sticking up all over, you can put the sheet of plywood on top and step on it. This forces the pebbles down to the same level and pushes mortar up in between them. Don't do it too hard at first. Lift the panel and check how it looks. Then use a light spray to wash off the displaced mortar and flatten it again. I usually do this a few times or more if I have every thing set just right. You will get in to trouble if you had too much mortar in the form to begin with and it is oozing out all over and the pebbles are moving from their intended place. Don't spray too hard so that you blast out your work either. When you feel like it is flat and presentable and washed to properly expose the finished work, just let it sit for a few days to cure, getting it wet from time to time so that it does so slowly. Then you can unscrew the form and take a screw driver to scrape off the slaggy mortar edge along where the forms were. A well done mosaic doesn't show much mortar, just the lovely pebbles you so painstakingly selected. It might be a pain to do this kind of work, but I have been doing it for many years, and I think it is one of the loveliest forms of pavement imaginable. You could make a series of pavers and then put them together to make a pad, or space them and make a path. If you are ambitious, you can do mosaic work all over your garden. If you do them in place you don't have to move it in to place. If you do this you should put drop cloths over plants and walls as the mortar splatters some when hosing the work off. You will get better at it as you gain experience. After the mosaic has cured for about 25 days you can clean it with Muriatic Acid diluted with 4 parts water. Pour it on and scrub with a nylon bristle brush. It will remove any dulling mortar film left on the pebbles. Be careful using this stuff. Wear rubber gloves and cover your skin, and do not breath the fumes. You can buy it at the local hardware store. Use a flathead screw driver to trim out any unwanted globs of mortar and to smooth the joints. Lotus Step Stone Path in Portland, Oregon I have stood premade panels on end, mortaring them in to walls, and have inbedded flexible copper tubing normally used for ice machines and the like to hook up creating simple fountains. I've built the panels in situ many times in parking strips, and as large stepping pads for wider paths, but I recommend you start small and manageable and moveable until you get the hang of it. Paths made with 14x14" step stones make a lovely small path. One set I built are lotus blossoms, alluding to a Buddhist Jataka Tale about Sidhartha Gautama being born, and having lotus blossoms spring from his footprints. Another is simple alternating bands of black and gold Mexican Beach Pebbles. If you precompose the design you are probably going to make a better stepping stone so I cannot emphasize enough the benefit of knowing what you are about to create. Fit the pebbles tightly together and try to be the best artist you can. Hand selected beach stones fit in to gaps in a mortar set stone parking strip pad Simple bands of colored pebbles in round stepping stones match the mosaic path of a rattle snake between my two houses. The smaller rounds were made in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket. I am currently working on a multi year project on the South Island of New Zealand which will include possibly hundreds of pebble mosaic stepping stones. One of the project's emphasis is the reduction of waste so I am incorporating lots of debris from the site in to the bases of the stepping stones as a way to remove it from the waste stream and act as reinforcement. This has to be carefully done so as not to block the insertion of the stones in to the mortar, but it is a great way to get rid of all kinds of bits of non biodegradable garbage! Debris collected from the work site Debris added to the base of the stepping stone along with rebar for reinforcement The finished stepping stone The limits of what you can do with pebble mosaic are constrained only by your creativity. Good luck to you if you ever decide to try it. You might just impress yourself with your new found ability, and having created something beautiful. 3 Round Medallion mosaics mounted in a fountain wall, Portland Plants encroach on 'The River of Life', an early in situ mosaic in my career Round step stone with marbles, Indonesian Turquoise, Red Montana Rainbow, Black Mexican Beach and center beach stone
Add color to your landscape with easy-to-make stepping stones you decorate with mosaics. Use the same technique for other mosaic garden projects.
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