Casting stones

I tried my hand at stone casting. It worked out pretty well. I still have to paint them.

I'm pretty happy with the result.

Love, Andrea

Then I’m already looking forward to your painted stones. I hope you’ll show them to us.

I placed mine among the tomatoes yesterday so the garden bed looks a little more colorful.

How are you going to paint yours?

Petra, the smiley faces will be yellow with black eyes and a red mouth. I’m going to paint the stones to look like ladybugs (red and black) or do some dotting painting. We’ll see.

Hi Andrea, that’s a great idea! I have the exact same mold with the 6 large stones. I use the two slightly taller ones less often because they require too much casting material. I really like the 4 flatter ones. My grandson absolutely loves painting them, and so do I.

The other day I cast about 20 of them. I want to turn them into “wish stones.” I’ll share exactly what I have in mind here on the forum. For now, I have to keep an eye on my 20 stones to make sure he doesn’t get his hands on any of them first. I also have some great acrylic metallic paints. I recently dabbed them on with a round foam brush—it creates wonderful backgrounds.

In any case, I hope you have a lot of fun painting the stones. But be careful—it’s a little addictive. Once you’ve painted one stone, you’ll always want to paint another.

Best regards, Ina

Ina, I’m really looking forward to seeing your “stone casting” project here.
Then we can share our experiences. I’m still experimenting with the mixing ratio (i.e., the amount for this mold). I didn’t have quite enough mixture. It says 1:3 on the package, but not the actual amounts.

How much water did you use? I have this set of three silicone measuring cups.

The mixing instructions for my casting mixture also only listed a 1:3 ratio. But since I was casting several stones, I focused more on the consistency. I took a plastic cup, put 7 tbsp of powder in it, and then gradually added water while stirring. When I felt the consistency was right—it had to be pourable—I poured the mixture into my 4 stone molds. As I mentioned above, I left out the 2 stone molds that are a bit taller.

I didn’t have a silicone measuring cup—just a regular plastic cup. Since I was working with it at the sink anyway, I always washed it out right after use so nothing could dry on it. I’ve had this plastic cup for a long time for craft projects. It would be better if you had something with a pouring spout, but this works too. There’s always a little spillage.

Best, Ina

Thanks, Ina, for this info. That really helps.

My silicone measuring cup has a spout, so the leftover mixture can just dry inside—you can just turn the cup upside down, and presto, everything crumbles right out on its own. It works great.

Today I painted 6 smiley faces with yellow as a test; I’ll let them dry first because I don’t know yet if I’ll need to go over them again. I’ll continue tomorrow. Of course, I’ll show you the results.

Here are my 6 attempts at painting faces—there’s still room for improvement. I need finer brushes for the mouth.

A real eye-catcher despite the wide mouth

What are you planning to do with the stones? Little gifts? Or a decor idea?

It depends. I’ll keep some as decorations, and I’ll give some away as good-luck charms.
I still have the long stones—those will become ladybugs.