Cobbles Going In

 I decided to take the time to make my own, bread-loaf shaped cobbles for my Christmas Market Stall, and began yesterday. The first thing was to paint the mossy green pieces of mat board (mount board) a spotty gray;

The next step was to sponge paint on the gray base, using both a sea sponge and a cellulose kitchen sponge; I couldn't find my cosmetic sponge, which is usually the last step. I used two shades of darker gray, and white to do this.

And I have no idea why the photo is suddenly sideways! It looks oddly spotted, but the next step is to cut the card into approximately 1 by 2 cm long pieces. Once cut into rectangular shapes, the corners have to be nipped off to appear hand-hewn; this work of making cobbles was often the hard labour that prisoners had to work at!

The edges of  individual stones then have to coloured dark gray, which I did while watching TV and with a washable gray felt pen; I always get pen all over my fingers doing this!

The flash has not been terribly helpful today, but here are the stones cut from the first piece of painted mat board, glued into place. I have finished cutting the second piece of board, and will now colour in the edges, again while watching TV. That is a rather boring part of making these stones....

Cutting up the painted mat board means the colour areas get jumbled up enough that the finished stones appear to have been individually painted.

The bread-loaf shape of stone is one I remembered from my childhood; there were small, rounded stones about half the size of these, called "kinderkopjes" (children's heads), that are often laid in semi- circular patterns, as well as regular rows of them. That's how the market in my Dutch hometown, Maastricht, is laid out; however, I'm not sure whether that is traditional or whether it is modern, as a few years ago, when I visited, they were busy re-laying the cobbles in one of the main roads, and it was being done in semi-circles. I recall these rectangular stones being on some of the older, i.e. medieval, parts of the city. 

Once the stones are laid, I'll give them a few coats of matte outdoors varnish, and see if I need to fill in the gaps between them. Usually, these cobbles are laid in a deep bed of sand.

I really hope that I can have the outside of the Market Stall done for Christmas, as I can always fill in the merchandise later....