Thread: Faux carpet moss for tombstones

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I had received a few requests for a how-to when I posted my teasers pics of my obelisk that I'm still working on, and so I decided to share it with all of you. A deep heartfelt thanks to all of you that have been so good about sharing their techniques. This ones for you!

Commencing tutorial in...3...2...1...fire! :P

I was surfing around looking at different aging styles to use on my tombstones one night, and ran across a blog by Dave of the Dead. A highly creative guy, who's full blog I was sucked into reading like a moth to flame. He had a scupture he had created, named "Pumpkin Baby" which had some very interesting mold techniques applied. As per usual,the gears started turning and I thought to myself, "Now why couldn't something similar be done to give a reasonable facsimile of carpet moss?" Oh boy, that did it! I played around with different materials for a couple of months off and on, and finally came up with what I think...is a win.



Mind you, I'm not finished by any means. It will creep up onto the obelisk itself when finished. In any case, this was where I started. Nothing special, just your average store bought stone...



Yeah...no! It was pretty good before, but I wanted MOAR!


Now, before we begin. I have to warn you that this is the type of project with long drying times in between layers. Especially when you build heavily to make it 3 dimensional, which is ofc what gives it a more lifelike appearance. The thickest parts took upwards of 2 days to fully dry, and be workable again. Remember, I warned ye! Lol!



Materials List

1.) Sand, the finer the better. Silt is preferable.

2.) Sap Green Acrylic craft paint

3.) Lemon Yellow Acrylic craft paint

4.) Cerulean Blue Acrylic craft paint

5.) Grits. Or for Northerner's & our international compadres, any very coarse, stone ground corn meal (polenta, for instance) will make a good substitute. Trust me, the key is in the texture differences between the sand & corn meal. Heretofore termed grits to keep me from typing all night long. Lol!

6.) Wood Glue. Any type that is water soluble, and yet water resistant when cured. I personally used TiteBond. However, I'm sure any others meeting those two important qualities will be just fine.

7.) Old artists brush, 3/4" (1.9 cm) wide for applying glue.

8.) An assortment of smaller artists brushes, and a 2 1/2" (63 cm, roughly) angled cut in brush.

9.) Time, lots of it.

10.) Patience for tedious tasks, you'll need heaps of it.

11.) Drop cloth

12.) Spray bottle full of water for misting those areas where paint or glue is to heavy



Now that that is out of the way...

Step one

The first layer is simply a bonding layer to build off of. Apply a thick 50/50 mixture of water/sap green while the stone is horizontal to prevent it from running. Remember: nature never, ever does perfectly straight lines. A fact which is especially true where carpet moss is concerned. Work around it, with semicircles along the perimeter. Not perfect ones either, drag some of the paint off to the side. The key is not being consistent here, except in the thickness of the coat of paint.

Then take your sand, and sprinkle across the paint. Let it build up until the watered down paint is no longer soaking through. Wait about 10 minutes, then take the stone and tap the back side to vibrate the excess off. Set it aside, and go do something else while it dries. I'd suggest coming back to it tomorrow. At this point, something like this is what you should have...





Your's looks similar? Good, move to step 2.


Step two

Now we start building up from the bonding layer. Same procedure as before, a heavy layer of sap green, then add sand. Where this differs is in the amount of sand applied. Heavy base, and then start to build up in the inside corners you want the carpet moss to look like it's climbing over. One important thing to consider at this point, is that carpet moss at the lowest point will be substantially thicker at the base of whatever it is climbing on. Thinning out as you get to it's upper reaches. Also, it's not consistent within that thickness at the same growth line. So build little hills & valleys, ridges & plateau's with your sand.

Once that is done, mix an approximate 65/35 ratio of water/glue. No thicker, or the mixture will settle on top instead of being absorbed.

Here's the tricky part. It's best to use an old art brush, and what you want to do to retain the terrain feature you just spent so much time building, is to slightly wipe your brush on the container so that it won't drip (a drip falling will destroy the landscape you just applied, so don't let it drip). Then as the bead reforms at the end of the brush, lightly touch the sand. The sharp edges of the sand grains will break the surface tension of the water glue mixture, and for the most part, it will then absorb straight into the sand. Soak it all, but only so much as the sand can absorb. Set it aside again, and go spend time with the significant other & kids. Seriously, this step is the one that you will wait at least a day and a half, and up to two full days for it to dry.

It should approximate this, when dry. About now your saying "Why add the paint if you can't see it?" Well, one important thing it does, is bond better with the acrylic in the bottom bonding layer. The glue layer then intermixes with the upper layer of paint, and for some unknown reason, seems to prevent cracking while it's curing.



At this point, the stone will have gained a good bit of weight. And, as an additional benefit...it's nearly as hard as concrete.


Step/day 3

Give it a good coat of the watery sap green at this point. Sorry, forgot to take a pic of this step. Non importante.


Step 4

Finally, we come to the fun part. Take your glue/water mixture and give it a decent coat. Ideally, you'd like for their to be a slight layer that doesn't absorb fully into the sand mixture. We want this layer of glue to grab the bottom of the grits and hold it in place. We are not wanting to encapsulate it, otherwise the colors can't be absorbed into the grits. Sprinkle an even coating of grits across it, and wait for it to dry.


It seems this is going to be a multi post how-to. Forum limitations, bleh!

Step 5

Come back in a few hours, and mix a cup of watery sap green. Then and add a bit of yellow for a yellow tinged green color, and drizzle it onto the grits. Again, wait for it to absorb/dry. Seriously? More drying time? Yeah, get over it, it looks sweet when finished. If it makes you feel any better at all, we are just to the halfway point. I'm sorry, I know that was evil.




Step 6

Apply another layer watered down yellow green, then a layer of watery glue, and follow that up with another layer of grits. Tinting the glue is the goal we are after here. Remember, even coats of grits. If the layer is more than roughly one piece thick, the glue will not hold it in place. Thereby creating a whole new set of problems for yourself. *Sigh* Drying time. :/ Looks pretty nasty at this stage. Worry not, that will change very shortly!



Repeat as necessary to achieve the desired thickness.

Step 7

That was the final layer of material, and from here on out...it's just paint, paint, and more paint. At this stage, drop a little sand into the low spots to simulate thin spots in the carpet moss. I vary the mixture heavily between layers. I think that I used somewhere in the neighborhood of 12-15 different shades that I mixed on the fly. Ranging from a blue green (mostly green ofc) to a yellow green. Finishing it out by dry brushing very a very light coat of sap green, and then lemon yellow for highlights. Anyway, let me shut up & let the pics do the talking. Here's the eye candy.







When I finish it, it will be crawling up along the obelisk proper. But now, I have to get back to making the base plate for the stone.

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Oops, edit misposted.

Looks good. Thanks for sharing this tutorial.

Wow, that looks super! Nice job.

Looks like the real thing! Thanks.

Amazing how authentic it looks! I think the effect you get is worth the time it took. Love the way it feathers out on the edges and the colors are perfect.

If you didn't have the process pictures as evidence, I'd swear you just let some real moss grow up on your prop... beautiful and very detailed.

Wow that looks real!!