Stone craft making things with pebbles

Pebbles, colorful and polished by water either at the seaside or in the bed of a fast-flowing stream, can be made into many attractive things to wear or to decorate the home — cufflinks, ear-rings, necklaces, or simple mosaic pictures. Combine pebbles with larger stones and you can make amusing paperweights or simple stone figures to place in the garden or on a terrace.

Collecting pebbles will keep children happy for hours on holiday. If the weather turns wet they can get to work on them or take them home to provide amusement for winter evenings. Mountains, hills and even moorland offer larger stones and rocks in fascinating shapes. Some already lend themselves to a particular design by their shape; you may find one that looks like an animal, or a figure, or one whose plain round or oval shape would make a very handsome paper-weight.

To decorate your finds you need the minimum of materials — water colors or emulsion paint, clear lacquer, glue and homemade plaster, and you're ready to start.

How to make simple mosaics
Apart from the pebbles you have collected in nice smooth shapes, you will need a piece of stiff cardboard in the size you want your picture to be and a retaining frame all round to hold the pebbles in their cement base until this has dried. The simplest thing to use as a base for beginners is something like the inside of a shoe-box lid, with the corners reinforced, possibly with sellotape.

You can make your own cement in which to embed the pebbles quite easily by mixing one part of wallpaper paste with two parts of gypsum or fine sand. Mix the two ingredients together and when well blended adds enough water to make a sticky paste. Now cover the inside of the lid with either foil or plastic. Make sure you have enough pebbles to complete the design you have in mind. Wash each one and dry it carefully. Place a layer of paste onto the plastic or foil — the depth of the cement will depend on the size of pebbles you are using but as a general guide from 1.5 to 3cm (½in to 1¼in) should do for most designs. Now, using a finely pointed instrument such as a knitting needle, draw the design on the cement. Unless you are an experienced artist start with the simplest of patterns — a flower or two in simple shapes, a ship, a fish, the sun, a little house.

Now comes the fun part — putting the pebbles into position. Make sure they are properly embedded into the cement. If you want to hang your mosaic picture when it is completed, press a wire loop into the cement at the top of the picture while it is still damp. It will take the cement two or three days to dry out completely and get really firm. Test with your finger before you take it out of its frame. Then turn it over carefully, so that the back has a chance to dry out too. To bring out the color of the pebbles and make them sparkle give them a good rub with floor polish or furniture wax.

How to make figures from stones
With the help of the same cement you used for mosaics you can make amusing and striking stone figures, using a combination of large stones and smaller pebbles. Until you get your hand in, try and copy the ideas on these pages, setting out to find stones in the right shapes and sizes to make the various bodies, heads, legs and arms.

Once you have assembled your figures and stuck them together with the homemade cement you can paint them with either water colors or emulsion paint. Once the paint has dried a coat of clear lacquer will seal the color and give the finished statue a polished look.

The tortoise is simply made from one large stone, four small chipped stones for the feet, and a pointed one for the head. If you are artistically inclined you could have a go at painting the tortoise's markings on the shell, using an illustration as a guide. A coating of lacquer will give your tortoise the soft shine of the real shell. Stand your stone tortoise in the grass and it will look life-like — after all even live tortoises don't move about too much!

A few flat stones in round or oval shapes, pebbles in various sizes and you have the materials for a series of funny faces. You can vary the expressions on the faces according to the shapes of the pebbles — eyes and mouth turned up and you get a happy smiling face, turn the pebbles down and your face will sulk and look distinctly gloomy. Pebbles can add "curls" to the head and if you really want to have fun add a paper hat trimmed with flowers or feathers.

The mosaic flower, still inside its frame made from a shoe-box lid, is made from the instructions already given.

The colorful paperweight started life as a beautifully shaped heavy round stone. Bright colors give it life — a piquant face, a jaunty cap over straight "hair" and a fringe. A coat of lacquer will preserve it. Stand it on your desk or on shelves; you could make two or three for an unusual, decorative effect.

The charming necklace made of polished pebbles and wire, costs next to nothing, yet could have come from an expensive boutique in an exclusive resort. To make it you need nicely shaped pebbles in good colors. You can use as many as you like, vary the sizes or keep them all the same, and use toning colors or again have a variety of different ones. Our design is based on seven pebbles more or less in the same size and shape and in toning shades. Each pebble is tied with fine wire, rather as if you were making up a parcel and the ends of the wire are tied together to form a loop. The loops are then hung on the thicker wire which forms the basis of the necklace, curved to go round your neck in whatever length you choose. To make a fastening, bend one end of the wire into a loop and the other into a hook. Attractive cuff-links are quick to make if you use an old pair as the base, sticking on pebbles with glue. Alternatively, you can buy cuff-links ready to decorate from many craft shops.

Meet the stone family Robinson — Mummy, Daddy and son and daughter, complete with the dog. It's just a matter of finding stones in the right shapes and sizes for the bodies, faces and limbs and sticking them together with the home-made cement. Then use your imagination and paint on faces and clothes. Your family can be made in any size — small enough to sit on a shelf, or large enough to make outdoor sculptures for your garden — far nicer and more imaginative and amusing than a mass-produced gnome from a garden shop.

Once you've got your hand in you can make any number of stone figures — a whole farmyard, cows (painted black and white) pigs, and horses — which can stand on a bed of moss with small branches of pine or yew for trees. Or slowly build up your own stone zoo — think of lions, painted gold, with a piece of silk fringe for the mane, tigers with the stripes painted on, zebras and leopards. You could stand them on really large rocks and fit a small saucer full of water in between the rocks to make a natural pool.

Stone sculpture is a wonderful, creative pastime for all the family. The parents will enjoy it as much as the children and you can use materials found on country walks — so you get the benefit of the walk in good weather and the hobby for winter evenings.