The 100-day Project, Day 13 — Sunstone and the "Meanings" of Designs

7 months ago

Lucky 13!

In this case, it means day 13 of the 100-Day Project, and I continue to plug forward. I had no particular plan today, and since it was Sunday — a day on which I am typically all wrapped up in adding new listings to my eBay business — I had modest expectations.

All in all, it turned out "easier" than expected. Cool!

The end result today was unexpected: This is what I call a "Sun Stone"

Day 13 Stone Painting:

Decided to do a "random grab" into my box of black stones labeled "weird shapes and various pits and defects" to see if I could force myself to create something worthy with what I would consider a "difficult" stone.

Yes, the really smooth stones are hard enough to come by that I can't just wait around only for the perfect ones, as they amount to somewhat less than 0.1&% of what I pick up to examine.

A somewhat odd shaped stone that also has little pale quartz flecks in the main matrix, not easy to hide/incorporate.

My original thought was to dial back the time machine in my mind and do one of the "monochromatic" style designs I often did in the very early days of Alchemy Stones, before I figured out that my halogen work lamp can also be used to speed-dry the paint sufficiently between colors that I don't have to work on 6-8 stones at a time while the paint dries.

Do a simple and relatively quick design in just white and gold. But it was not to be.

Adding a pinwheel effect - the "Sun"

I didn't get all that far before it seemed like it would just become "too boring," and the stone seemed to be "talking" to me, anyway, sending me in a different direction.

Yes, I'm a little bit nuts. I talk to rocks. They talk back.

Anyways, gone was the idea of only white and gold... and the "Sunstone" started to manifest.

I could keep going with the rotation, but at some point I always feel compelled to return to the more "traditional" styles I use.

This stone actually has a little hole/pit on the paintable surface, but I managed to hide it pretty well.

It's a testament to my determination that I managed to stick to my design till the very end and not break into randomly different colors because my ADHD was trying to take over the process!

The finished stone - this photo, and top photo. Not bad.

Day 13 Summary and Social Media Bits:

One stone painted: I was thinking of doing another, but looked at the clock and chose not to! I'm somewhat getting back in the swing of things here, which also means I'll be ready to pull out the blanks set aside to do the 30-stone commission for that women's retreat, late this spring.

Daily Twitter/X post: Check. Continuing to add to my following list... being very discerning. Approaching 100 followers!
Daily Facebook Page post: Check. Shared a collage of the recently painted stones.
Daily Instagram post: Check. Picture of one of the recently painted stones.

Other Stuff: As usual, this Hive post; otherwise nothing... too many other things to do. Daily shoutout to @gillianpearce hope you made it home safely!

Day 13 completed; went fairly well, getting better at choosing the right amount of time to spend with this.

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Thank You!

If you enjoy painted rocks, do check out The Hive Rocks Project and help spread the word about Hive, while also being creative!

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