Comment by STUART on March 13, 2012 at 8:07am

Well I can't tell real from synthetic here, that is a 5 star project!

Comment by STUART on March 13, 2012 at 8:08am

if you don't mind me asking what coloring product did you use on these stones?

Comment by SCOTT ARMSTRONG on March 13, 2012 at 10:44pm

I was experimenting here so I tried a number of different methods of coloring. I used quikrete liquid colors (Brown, Buff, Charcoal and Terra Cotta) that I picked up from Home Depot for these stones and boulders. I mixed them at various concentrations with water in a small, hand pumped pressure sprayer. Again, picked the sprayers up at Home Depot in the garden section. I kept the pressure low which allowed the spray to be more of a coarse spatter rather than a mist. I kept a bucket of water and rags to blot off the stones if everything get too ugly.  I sprayed from a good distance away in order to get a good random look. I was trying to get these rocks to look like granite. (Granite used to be quarried in my town....especially after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake). So I have only to look around the neighborhood for examples to match. I use crumpled up paper to help texture and blotch things realistically. I probably came back and hit those boulders three or four times during the day to get the depth of color I wanted. I even used some left over 100% acrylic exterior wood stain (Behr) to get some of the orange you see. I haven't tried the "professional" stains the Don has at Walt Tools.....I could only afford the texturing kit....I hope someday to be able to try out a sample of his earth tone stains. I have several stone projects that I'm starting and need to be sure I using something relatively permanent.

Comment by STUART on March 14, 2012 at 1:45am

Well you did a great job with the coloring an the technique, and you used over the counter HD colorants... very impressive!

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