Question from Ann of Albury

Hi Brett

Have just joined this wonderful site and have learnt so much just by reading other members’ letters and your replies.

Was just wondering if you have any alternatives for doing stepping stones. I have made a few circular ones on solid concrete, but they are so heavy to lift both before and after mosaicing – any ideas on a substitute lighter material? They look fantastic done – I have done a series of fruit which my husband has “knocked off” for his garden – and want to do some more in the hope of perhaps selling them, but as I said they are so heavy to transport

Look forward to receiving your’s and others’ ideas! Ann

Reply from Brett

Hi Ann

Thanks for your question

When it comes to stepping stones, I think bigger & heavier is better as they’re required to handle both the elements and foot traffic. When they’re big in their own right, you don’t need to be as concerned about the ground you’re putting them in – they’ll settle on their own without any great risk of cracking.

For your own garden, you could put the mosaic on them indirectly (covered in the tutorials) saving a couple of moves.

Offering them for sale is definitely problematic & this is one reason I’ve never pursued making them for sale – I think it’s almost impossible to make something suitable for shipping that is still robust enough for garden installation and foot traffic.

You could consider installing small mosaics on tiles, but then it would need to be installed on a bed of screeded sand. If it’s not done really well, they may crack under the weight of foot traffic and I don’t like your chances of people installing them well!

So I guess I can’t be much help on this one – I’ve considered the same thing in the past myself – with no ideas to resolve it.

Sorry!!

Brett