After viewing pictures of ancient stone carvings, students were challenged to create a mock bas-relief “stone carving” (featuring a design of their choice) through an additive process.
They used pieces of scrap matboard for a “base” layer and formed their design from 2-4 additional layers of matboard. They were instructed to use small pieces of masking tape to close any holes or “tunnels” on the edges of the layers.
They used a couple of different methods to transfer their design to the matboard. Some students chose to make a pattern of one of the elements of their design and trace around it.
Other students used a graphite transfer method: After sketching their design, they placed their paper against a window in order to trace the design onto the back of their paper. Then, by using a pencil to darken the lines on the back of the paper, they placed their design (right side up) on a piece of matboard. As they traced over their lines on the front of the paper, the heavy application of graphite on the back side of the paper transferred to the matboard.
They used scissors and X-acto knives to cut out their design pieces. Rough edges on the matboard were removed by sanding lightly with sandpaper.
Once they had all pieces cut out, they began arranging them and gluing the layers together.
As we began to spray these pieces (many of which were at least 9×12″ in size) using relatively expensive simulated stone spray paint, I realized that I was only able to spray 3-5 pieces per can! We were super pleased with the results–especially when we saw how dramatic they looked in strong sunlight!–but we had to try more cost-effective ways to add a stone-like texture.
We tried spray painting the matboard with regular (inexpensive) paint in black or dark gray and then just spritzed on the stone fleck paint. This worked quite well, and it definitely conserved the more expensive paint.
We also used a spray adhesive and sprinkled sand onto the surface. The next day the excess sand was tapped off, and the piece was sprayed with regular dark spray paint.
Ultimately, we decided that if the stone fleck spray paint was too costly to use by itself, the next best method was to use the fleck stone paint over regular spray paint.
