Thanks to Irene, there was a power failure that lasted almost three days in our area. My boyfriend and I both run our business from home and live in the countryside, so alternative solutions did not come by the handful. I thought about buying the biggest computer battery out there and coupling it with a generator, but that would mean not taking an obligated break once in a while :-). Anyway, we worked on the most important stuff from a café in a nearby village who had Internet access and then went back home.

Once there, I had to take my mind off not being able to get all the “computer work” done. The pebbles ended up being the perfect outlet to my eagerness.

I felt a little insecure using the stones that my friend brought back from Gaspésie, even if there is a bagful. They feel precious and I don’t want to waste any. I took three sea pebbles but mostly tested on the stones I picked up in my area. There are a lot of nice ones but they are not as even shaped and smooth as those found in Gaspésie.

These are all stones from my area, except for the pebble at one o’clock on the photo.

I worked mostly in black and white, with ink and acrylic. Other stones were decorated with color crayons (you will see these in an upcoming post). Surprisingly, crayons work really well on the sea pebbles; the smooth grain and light porosity act as a fine textured paper. I will use this technique again over the weekend and these prehistoric fish will probably serve as an inspiration.

Carved stones from Chichen Itza (Mexico). We were there in 2007.

Painted stones on a beach by Shirô Hayami
Richard Shilling’s Robin Hood’s Bay stack

Have a good weekend!