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Arts & crafts

Rock painting

(40 Posts)
Telly Tue 07-Nov-17 17:49:52

Our village is into rock painting which I think has been mentioned here before. Seems everyone is doing it, children are having a go and the adults too. You then hide them so its a bit of a treasure hunt. Came over from America. Have to say I have become a tiny bit obsessed. I do paint watercolour but am using acrylics for the rocks. They seem to get a bit special once they are sprayed with a varnish. I am using You tube for some inspiration, but with adaptations. There are some that I can't quite bear to give away! Any one else hooked?

WilmaKnickersfit Sat 27-Jan-18 04:07:12

I've not heard anything about this. It sounds like fun. smile

gillybob Sat 27-Jan-18 09:02:54

My DGD’s love rock painting (well pebble painting anyway) . When I go for my usual walk in the beach I look out for unusual shapes and pop them in my back pack (together with sea glass to add to my collection). I really can’t see a problem it’s not as though I am taking a JCB and moving tons at a time. For every 6 little stones I remove the tide probably brings another 10,000 in .

Telly Sat 27-Jan-18 09:10:38

I buy stones from the garden centre. I think the problem is that if everyone took a few it would mount up, plus you will always get those who bag up on an industrial scale. I buy a big bag less than £10. I have just started doing some Valentine themed ones for the village, even though I said I was done! I just enjoy doing them and I usually start with paint that is out following an acrylic painting. There are lots of ideas on the web to get you going and I like to think that they bring a smile to people who find them. Plus of course the grandchildren are ace at this!

goldengirl Sat 27-Jan-18 12:16:48

It seems strange to have to buy a bag of pebbles / stones when the sea chucks them up on a regular basis. Collecting stones is one of the fun activities on the beach for the GC and as other posters have said there's never a shortage. Another enjoyable and safe activity that has apparently been made illegal! Our beach is just loaded with stones of all different shapes and sizes.

farview Sat 27-Jan-18 16:48:28

..there's no way I would ever feel guilty just taking a few pebbles from the beach..my granddaughter's will spend hours looking for the 'perfect beautiful' pebble...kids always have,always will(hopefully rather than sitting at a screen!)..am sure the sea doesn't mind ?

1974cookie Sat 27-Jan-18 20:32:50

I used to paint stones that I collected from beaches over 40 years ago. I still have a few of them.
The best ones were from a beach in the West Country, which were perfectly smooth and flat thanks to a waterfall pounding on them. Perfect mediums for painting on.

Neilspurgeon0 Sun 28-Jan-18 12:08:17

If it is illegal to remove pebbles from a beach, what about throwing them into the sea, we all love doing that and have always, when we found a specially nice one with bands of colour or an interesting pattern or whatever, brought it home. Ok we only ever took a couple, maybe two or three per child/grandchild, but it was a very “normal” thing to do. I guess we are the cause of global warming, or coastal erosion or whatever. Sod ‘em I say, have NO intention of taking back the twelve or so decorating my back doorstep.

Telly Sun 28-Jan-18 12:45:58

I think its a bit like taking bluebells. In the past people would dig up a few but in the end many bluebell woods were lost.

georgiejg Sun 28-Jan-18 13:23:36

There is Facebook group called Love on the rocks for different areas so that you can post where you have hidden or found, the kids love it. this a great book got one for my granddaughter for Xmas, www.ebay.co.uk/i/362207843935?chn=ps&adgroupid=47990347093&rlsatarget=pla-379688529093&abcId=1129916&adtype=pla&merchantid=9778504&poi=&googleloc=9045047&device=c&campaignid=973674175&crdt=0

Greyduster Sun 28-Jan-18 13:59:06

It was when people started digging bluebells up rather than pulling a few to take home that the decline began. As children we would take armfuls - no one told us we shouldn’t then - we even took them to school! Now we know differently. However, the woods they came from are as healthy and glorious now as they were then. I still walk them in the bluebell season. I don’t know when the practice of digging them up began. The only ones I would dig up are the Spanish ones which are a threat to our native species.

Bluebell123 Mon 29-Jan-18 00:39:26

A local lady paints ladybirds on small pebbles and hides them on the beach for anyone to find. She delights in hearing children shouting "I found one!"

MawBroon Mon 29-Jan-18 07:59:56

Thank you Gillybob for pointing out that what we are talking about are pebbles.
I know it isn’t Pedants’ Corner but I particularly hate this Americanism (“rocks”) which to me are something of an entirely different magnitude.
Nobody talks of ships going aground on the pebbles or being “on the pebbles* so let’s not make these stones bigger than they are. Rock painting sounds like Cave Paintings not the attractive (or otherwise) paperweights which our children loved to paint, varnish and present to grandparents as gifts.

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