Gemstones Underfoot

aka The Sandstone part VI

We throw caution to the winds

We had left a narrow strip around the footings - be just hadn't added the mortar layer in the space adjacent to the dwarf wall in the patio area.

This had been reserved for a colourful display of the earth's treasures - this picture shows the stones arranged by hue in pairs.

We just turned two of the boards around and were able to place the gemstones in their correct and balanced sequence along the dwarf wall ready to be set in the mortar.

We needed to go to all that trouble to ensure the stones would be equally spaced and would fit neatly in the length available - with concrete and mortar its not easy to go back and adjust things after it starts to go off.

Here are the stones ready for the mortar - we added a clear quartz point between the gemstones to create another visual and energetic treat.

A snapshot of the process.

On the left is the empty channel with its concrete base.

The middle section show the gemstones placed in a bed of wet mortar.

On the right you can see the sprinkling of stone chips added and pressed into the mortar.

This is what the stones looked like in the still-wet mortar - the quartz points are not set finally as the sprinkling of gemstone chips around the stones has not been completed.

The blue chalk marks were what we used to check our spacings were matching on either side.

Here's what the process looks like - the mortar is quite stiff by now but still workable.

This lets us make sure the quartz points are pointing uprights, the stones haven't inadvertently been pushed too far into the mortar and the chips are well-held by the mortar.

The chair is a necessary luxury to save the knees - we've been working on the ground for nearly 4 hours at this stage and still need to concentrate completely on that tiny patch of the channel.

The small wooden bowl in front of the centre of the doors is holding the selection of stones we reserved for the centrepiece.

The Centrepiece

We had saved some stones for the centre of the strip - here's how they turned out.

This group includes natural diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, peridot azeztulite and phenacite - a very potent blend of energy to grace the entrance.

The group is sheltered in the embrace of a lovely piece of Rose Quartz which is blessed by the sun's first rays on midwinter's morning.

The Steps get the treatment

Either side of the main doors are triangular raised sections which we frequently use as we move around.

These - again - deserved some special treatment and it seemed appropriate to add a man-made diamond (made of glass) - which I engraved to promote "looking within".

To get the light to reflect from the internal surface it was necessary to make sure they were touching air and not mortar, otherwise it became rather dull and lifeless.

After much searching and experimentation we discovered that a Moccona coffee jar was the perfect width and height in which to sit the diamond.

The lapidary saw quickly produced 2 hollow plinths for the diamonds - you can see one here ready for the mortar.

The inset image shows the sparkling visual intrigue within.

And here's what one of the steps looked like when the detailing was completed.

The green stones are mostly emerald and the diamond is in the corner.

At this stage we felt we were finished - apart from the front steps which were a separate exercise.

However the exposed concrete of the dwarf walls was now visually substandard and something clearly had to be done about that.

We had a jar of gemstone chips left and a trip to the local market (blessed with a crystal stall bearing a marvelous range of treasures) refitted our supplies and we encrusted the offending surface with more gems.

The brown staining is runoff from the encrusting process where we stained the mortar with brown colouring. The runoff from the final wet-washing stage produced brown puddles all around the place - more cleaning!