After spending a week in Venice I had a couple of days to myself before having an old friend visit me in the Isle of Man. I hadn’t seen her in over a year and we spent the time listening to music from ‘the old days’ and catching up on our lives and everything that’s happened since we last spent time together.
Though the weather wasn’t that great we also spent some time camping on the beach in Daisy Blue and scouring the local beach for sea glass. There’s something so childlike and primal in hunting for colourful shards of glass. The whoop of excitement from a thirty-something can’t be all that different from one coming from a nine year old.
In an hour of hunting for our sea jewels we collected quite a pile of coloured glass, bits of pottery, and small shells and rocks. It’s all well and nice to collect the pieces but I wanted to make something with them too.
Last year I used my sea glass to make a votive candle but I thought it would be nice to create something different that would remind me of Mara’s visit. I decided to make a stepping stone filled with sea glass and one that would display the glass in the same wet-look that you’d find them in on the beach. Every time I see it glistening in the light I’ll remember the time we spent hunting for glass on Garwick beach.
The stepping stone I’ve made is everything I imagined and I’m pleased to be able to share how I created it. It’s a great way to create a memento of an afternoon on the shore and would be a lovely gift to pass on as well. First off you’ll need a few materials:
1. An old pan or plastic tub to use as a mould
2. Cement and coarse Aggregate (basically a mixture of sand and gravel) Or get both of these together pre-mixed Quikrete Concrete Mix Bag 10 Lbs
3. Gold Spraypaint, Flat/matte White spraypaint and Clear Glossy spraypaint
4. Sea glass and any other hard stones, shells, pottery, or objects you’d like to embed into your stepping stone.
5. A square of chicken wire or other metal fencing that will fit inside your mould
Step 1: Using your matte white spraypaint, paint one side of the beach glass you want to embed in your stone – the side that you want to be pushed into the concrete. If you don’t paint one side then the dark colour of the concrete will make your glass look dark and murky since the grey colour will come through the glass.
Step 2: Mix one part cement with 3.5 parts aggregate or use the material from the pre-mixed bag I have listed above. I used an large yoghurt container for measurement but the exact amounts will depend on the size of your own mould. Next, add enough water to make it wet but not soupy. If it’s too wet then the decorations will sink.
Step 3: Fill your mould half-way with your wet concrete mix then place the square of wire on top. Fill the rest of the mould with concrete and completely cover the wire. This extra addition to the inside of your stone will give it more stability and help ensure it doesn’t split in the future.
Step 4: Spray the surface of the concrete with gold. It will look garish at first but the gold will add some beach-sand like shine to the dull concrete when you’re finished.
Step 5: Create your sea glass design by pressing pieces into the wet cement. Push them in firmly or they may come off eventually. When you’re finished, allow the stone to set for at least a day though I gave mine two days before I popped it out of the mould. To get the stone out, turn your mould over something soft (like grass) and shake it out – it should pop out easily.
Step 6: Clean the glass in the stone off with water and an old toothbrush. When it’s dried, spray the top with clear spraypaint to give the pieces that wet look.
Step 7: Dig a depression in the area you wish your stone to be placed and set it inside. Doesn’t it look beautiful?
I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial and if you’d like to see more of my crafty ideas please browse through my projects here.
