A little bit of an experiment this week.

I have been seeing a fair bit of pebble painting going on around the internet so I thought that I could see what I could do with that concept in conjunction with my CoLiDo 3D Compact printer.

Read on to see how it all turned out.
The first thing was to create the pebbles so I created some odd shapes in Microsoft 3D builder, deforming them by smoothing and simplifying extended spheres and then slicing into them.

These were then sent to print.

At the end of a couple of print runs, I ended up with a nice selection – almost as if I had picked them up from a beach!

With any extruded 3D printing you will get fine lines across your print. This is simply because of the way in which the PLA is deposited in ‘slices’ in order to build up your 3D design.

I therefore wanted to experiment to see if I could make the pebbles smoother.

Using three different fine grades of sanding sponges I gently rubbed over the surface. Now, sanding isn’t always reccommended for 3D printing as friction will heat the PLA and perhaps cause distortion or other negative effects however I was very happy with the results that I got.

So, pebbles sanded, it was time to experiment with some different mediums.

First, a basic coat of stone coloured acrylic paint.

This worked really well and I think is something that I will return to in a future batch.

Next, something sparkly!

I applied a thick coat of Pebeo Fantasy Moon mixed media medium and let that dry. The result, to the eye, was quite spectacular – not so easy to pick up on camera.

Very happy with that though.

I then wondered how the pebbles would cope with different types of glues so I decided to try out a Pebeo foiling kit that I got a while back.

After masking off areas of two pebbles, applying the gilding paste and letting it dry I set to work with the wafer thin sheets of copper coloured foil.

Wow! Didn’t think it would take so well but it really was amazing!

Hmmm, Ok, well if that worked, what about crackle glaze?

A layer of black gesso was first applied to the pebble and after this had dried I applied a coat of crackle glaze and again, let that dry.

Some antiquing cream was then gently rubbed over the top with some cut and dry foam.

DRAGON EGG??!!

Cool eh?! Right, more!For the last text I decided to combine a bunch of these techniques so began with layers of paint and alcohol stains.

Then, layers of foil.

Each of these layers was gently rubbed back before the next was applied.

The result was almost like an abalone shell!

Gorgeous!

As a last ‘quickie’ I adapated a couple of the pebble designs and fused them to a bowl shape before printing.

The pebbles were then coated in gold Fantasy Moon paint and left to dry before faux sand was poured into the bowl.

Looks like one of those miniature zen garden things doesn’t it?!

Need me some of that lately!

Anyhoo, that was about all that I had time for on this abstract experiment.

A nice little collection though.

What do you think? I know it’s not the Pebble Painting that’s out there, which is quite precise and colourful, however these are definitely ‘me’.

How would you decorate yours?

Right, onwards and upwards – many thanks for stopping by again. It was great to spend time with you.

See you next time.

J :)