Stoned

Tuesday night was the last of the three mosaic garden stone classes at Luck.  Carol and I enjoyed each of these classes and we love our new garden stones.

This week I tried to capture the process from start to finish.

Step one:  Burger and beer at what used to be The Mill Inn in Milltown, WI.

Carol and I really liked the food and the remodeling is bright, clean and fits with Up North.

We gave this place a big thumbs up and we will be back as the service was great too.

Step two:

Plan your design.

I found an image on the internet for puppy prints with a heart, I decided that was what I would try.

Step 3:

Cut glass and make the stone.

Glass cutting is pretty easy on the straight lines, but curves are for sure something that take practice.

Once the glass is cut, we lay out our pattern on the pre-cast stone.

I had hoped to cut out the heart shape from the black glass, but that did not work.

I was left with several pieces to make up the puppy foot pad.

I had to adjust my plan to include the heart some other way.

I decided to make the heart out of red and nest it inside the puppy paw pad.

This looked good to me and after some adjusting of the black pieces, 

I was ready to move on to the mosaic border and fill.

After some discussion with the instructor, Pam, and looking at the many colors of glass available, I chose a light blue glass to use with white contrast for borders and mosaic pieces.

I like this chevron corner treatment and then started the tedious task of filling in the open areas.

It is a good way to use of little scraps of glass so I tried to do as much of that as possible while trimming as best I could to keep with a triangular shape.

Once all the spaces are filled in, the next step is to remove the design from the stone, apply thin set cement and then re apply the design.

I missed taking photos of this part of the process.

Contact paper is applied to the glass design, then the entire design is lifted an set aside, while the thin set cement base is prepared.

Then, very carefully, the entire design is re applied to the thin set cement.

This next photo is my design, in the thin set, covered with the contact paper.

It stayed that way until the thin set cement is dry and the project is ready for grouting.

 Here it is ready for grouting.

I had to decide what color of grout to use, and finally decided on dark gray.

I liked this lighter look but thought the gray would pop the red heart better.

I couldn't take pictures while I was grouting, but I did take this one of Carol working on her stone.

It looks a lot like you are ruining it, but it is really the magic.

Grouted, and waiting to dry for final wiping.

Puppy paws grouted and cleaned, now all it needs is the sealer that keeps it weatherproof.

Although it will be weather / moisture proofed, it is not recommended to leave the glass outdoors in the winter because it could expand and crack.

 I think I made the right choice with the grout color.  The red hearts really pop out at you and the light blue and white are good balance to the black glass.

I'm happy with this version of getting stoned.

I'm planning to give this as a gift to my friend Mary who loves her doggies so much.

I think she will like it.

The last step is to write a message on the back with a Sharpie and hand it to Mary.

Life is Good.

Here is Carol's finished stone, ready for grouting.

Carol's grouted stone.  The dark glass didn't photograph well, it is iridescent and very pretty.