This is a project I just finished up that I've been working on for the last six months. Actually, it is part of a bigger project that has been going on for over a year now called Let's-Dig-Up-The-Lawn. We dug up all of our grass in the front yard and planted (low water) California natives. The yard looks terrible right now, but someday (maybe/hopefully) it will look amazing.
Since I can't make the plants grow any faster, I decided to work on other things, like stepping stones. My friend Lorrie has a lovely front yard with native plants and pathways of mosaic bricks that she and her family made together so this project was inspired by her yard.
The style of mosaic (and the how-to part) was inspired by the artist, Jeffrey Bale, who only uses natural stones for his mosaic work. His work is absolutely amazing. I followed his stepping stone instructions except I used cardboard boxes rather than build a wooden form. I never got my pebbles to fit together as tightly as I would like though - how does he do it?!
I've spent a lifetime collecting stones and I finally have something to do with some of them.
The kids made several, here are two that they made:
All in all we made 21! I'm rather addicted and I'll mostly likely revisit this again very soon. I've always found stone collecting meditative (I could spend all day at the beach and forget to eat or ever look up) and it turns out I feel the same way about sorting them and placing them. Ow, my back! I could dissappear for an entire day in the rocks and it is pure bliss. I think some people feel this way about knitting, people always talk about how time flies when they knit. It has always (theoretically) appealed to me for this reason, but it has never felt right. For me, it is rocks and it always has been.
Here is a pic of some of the pathway:
The bit of green peeking up are wildflower sprouts and there is a California lilac in the background that will someday be huge. I can't wait until things start taking off and really growing.
