Stone Pen-stands

Hello everyone

How are you all doing? Its weekend already and it has finally started to rain in Mumbai give all us Mumbaikars the much needed relief from the scorching sun. To celebrate this eventful day, I am blogging today about a pen stand I made for my bff for her office desk. It matches her office decor and color and also it has such fresh ad cool colors that you almost forget about the summer.....

Materials:

1. Stones or pebbles (colored or uncolored)
2. Acrylic paints
3. Epoxy based glue ( Araldite or Epoxy 6000)
4. Round/ square Chipboard piece (12 cm diameter/sides)
5. Pattern paper or any paper
6. Asian Paint Exterior varnish

Procedure:

1. Clean and wash all your stones with soap water to remove all the dirt and grime. Dry them completely before you start using them.
   
2. Get a circular piece of chipboard or any other shape you desire. I have taken approximately 5" in diameter for the base.
   
3. Cover it with Pattern paper on both sides. You can use fabric too. Leave it as it is if you want and you can pain it later.
   
4. Now start sticking stones in circular manner using epoxy glue ( I used  Araldite). Instructions to use epoxy glue is mentioned on the product itself. Make sure you place stones keeping distance from the center and towards the edge.
   
5. Once you place a single layer of stones, wait for it to dry a little. Once it dries up, start building a second layer using epoxy glue. In such manner you can build ans many layers as you want. 
   
6. Please be careful while placing the stones as they are irregular shaped, it takes patience and practice to place them properly. Sometimes you might have to hold it in place for few mins to secure them in place. I placed 8 to 10 layers of stones to obtain my pen stands.
   
7. The perforated look comes naturally as the stones are all irregular in shape. Dunt worry about any spillage from the epoxy glue. once you varnish your project, it wont be visible.
8. Now allow the pen-stand to dry for a day. Once dried, I applied acrylic paint to it because
   I wanted partiular color combination. you can leave it as it is also. 
   
9. After your color dries up, apply atleast 2 coats of varnish. I have used Asian Paint exterior varnish. You can add embellishments it you want before or after varnishing depending upon what you are using. 
10. You can start after the cuing time for the varnish is done.
    

I hope you liked my blog post and thanks for vising me. Keep crafting .....