Thread: Medusa Mud

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I've been working on my first real tombstone and I think I may have something that could really help some other folks out. In my quest to be as cheap as possible I picked up a few things from my local "Builder's bargains" (think Goodwill for construction supplies) and came up with what I think could be a pretty cool coating for tombstones, columns or anything else that you want to look like stone. In another "frugal" step I used the $10.00 per sheet 1 1/2" white foam board instead of the $30 per sheet pink/blue stuff that is probably a whole lot more workable.

I used equal parts dark gray sanded grout and white thinset mortar, added water to make a "thin enough to brush on" consistency and then let loose on my stone. The epitaph in carved in with a Dremel and the cracks were cut with a razor blade, opened up a bit with a grout saw, and then brushed very lightly with acetone (thank you, Terra). The cracks were then coated with the mud and I still have to paint them. The letters of the epitaph were painted before application of the mud with a watered down black acrylic paint from Michael's ($.60 for the bottle).

I hope this gives others some ideas, or sparks their creativity.

dK


The mud is not completely dry in the pictures...that is why there is a color disparity. It goes on almost black and dries a light grey.

That's a cool idea. Did you coat the whole stone first and then do the accents that you can see from your pictures?

no, actually all the accents (cracks, etching) were done prior to coating the stone. It isn't complete yet, I still want to throw another coat on there so that everything is that nice light grey color including the vase.

The initial idea was to use the name Rose, but then I realized that was my 84 year old grandmother's name and that might not be all that cool....then we were going to go with "Rosie"...but my daughter quickly reminded me that Rosie was her cat's name...so I went with another flower name. The vase will have some black roses in it, and I'm thinking about adding another rose to the front kind of laying across it and mudding it in so that it will look carved.

Thanks for commenting Terra. After all your amazing work it really is cool to see that you checked out mine!!

dK

Looks like a great idea, thanx