I made a GeckoStone walkway for the entrance to a garden in my backyard. The garden is kind of a memorial garden for my mother, so it is a really special place for our family and it needed a special entrance. I have been fascinated by the artwork of M.C. Escher for a few decades and these interlocking blocks seemed to have been inspired by Escher’s geometric patterns. One of my favorite of Escher’s drawings is “Reptiles”, where the lizards crawl out of the tessellation, onto a desktop, give a little snort from the top of a book and then crawl right back into the drawing. If I can find them, I will include some 3-D geckos into the garden as if they have temporarily left the walkway to smell the flowers.
As a working mother, I don’t have much spare time. So this walkway project has been a major investment for me. I bought the molds in October 2002 and didn’t finish casting the stones for almost 2 years! I made an effort to mix a batch of stones every weekend that I was home, not working, didn’t have visitors and it was forecast to be above 55°F for the entire weekend. So, even though I only covered a relatively small area, it took a long time. I thought I might share some of my observations and insights about this project.
Acquiring the materials.
First of all – read and heed John August’s directions. He is right.
The concrete mix:
Because of the way I worked – a little at a time when I had the time, keeping enough concrete, sand and aggregate in my garage for the entire project was just not very practical. So, I used 60-pound bags of pre-mixed concrete mix, either Quikrete or Sakrete, depending on whether I shopped at Home Depot or Lowes. They are pretty much equivalent in content and quality and are interchangeable as far as the final product. A 60-pound bag will make 3 gecko stones with a little bit of concrete left over. I used the leftover to make some stones using another mold that I already had. And I occasionally made some unusual items, like the concrete hamburgers that I put on the grill to surprise my husband.
Concrete dyes:
I never did find a good local source for the concrete dyes that John August recommended, so I went with off-the-shelf products from the home improvement stores. Here’s what I learned. There is a big difference in the dyes made by Quikrete and Sakrete. The Quikrete dyes are liquid and are mixed with the water before adding it to the dry concrete mix. This is very easy except for one thing. The dyes come packaged for two 60-pound bags of concrete mix and I only made a single bag at a time, so the jar had to be divided, which is not always easy with the vile, viscous potion. The stuff gets everywhere and stains! Our driveway, my main work area, is now a multi-hued concrete palette. I kind of like it, but none of the neighbors have yet tried to copy it.
The Sakrete dye, on the other hand, is powdered and is mixed with the dry cement before adding the water. This takes a little more work than the liquid dye, but I think the colors that result from the powdered dye are richer. And each package is used for a single bag of concrete mix, so no measuring is required and it is a lot neater.
Release Agent:
The Crete-Lease stuff works great. I didn’t try any other product. Why mess with success? Here is a conversation that I had with the guy at Cresset that took my order over the phone:
Me: “Hi, I’d like to order 2 aerosol cans of your Crete-Lease VOC-20.
Cresset guy: “I’d be happy to send those to you. You must be making the Gecko Stones”.
Me: “How did you know? Are GeckoStone makers the only small-time buyers of Crete-Lease?”
Cresset guy: “Just the women, ma’am.”
Now, I’m sure that it’s not only women making the stones, but maybe we are the only ones following John August’s recommendation for release agents. But this conversation left me with the vision of a network of industrious women around the country, maybe around the world, with no knowledge of each other, but all sharing the common traits of good humor, strong backs, abundant patience and an appreciation for geometric proportion. In a time of international crisis, we could all be called to duty by John August, himself, or possibly by an authorized representative of the Cresset Company, to come to the aid of our ailing and asymmetric planet.
Preparation
Making 3 geckos at a time is a slow process. It will take many batches to get a full walkway. Keep everything you need in one place so when the opportunity arises, you can whip up a batch in 26 hours or so. (One hour for preparation, 24 hours of waiting, 1 hour for release and clean up).
The difference between too little water and too much water in a concrete mix is a very small amount – we’re talking a few ounces for a 60-pound bag of concrete. So add water slowly near the end.
I needed a lot more water than the bagged concrete mix called for. This may weaken the stones a little, but resulted in a much smoother appearance with fewer pockmarks. The directions call for 3 quarts of water for a 60-pound bag of mix. I added this much, then, a little at a time; I added more to make the mix workable. I usually end up with just short of one gallon total water added.
I tried several methods of mixing concrete, but by the end of the project I ended up just mixing the concrete manually in a plastic mortar tub made just for this kind of thing. They have them at the home improvement stores for about $6 each. I started out using a long, narrow-blade shovel to turn and mix the concrete. After a few batches, my husband suggested that I get a hoe. I told him that I didn’t exactly think those were the kind of skills that this job called for. After he regained his composure, he explained that he meant the garden implement, not the oldest profession. He was right, the hoe was very helpful and we’ve nicknamed her “Madame”. (She resides in the garage with Cindy, the loppers).
Filling the molds is the second most enjoyable part of the process (freeing the geckos from their molds is the first). Put on your heavy rubber gloves and fill the extremities by hand. Lots of patting and tamping will allow the concrete to fill all the void spaces and result in very pretty geckos. And it’s really fun.
And I requisitioned a little-used vibrator for ensuring that all the air bubbles were out of the concrete mix, so the edges of the stones would be nice and smooth. This is a mesmerizing procedure – to watch the concrete liquefy from the vibration and become a miniature, turbulent, boiling sea. Hard to explain – you’ll have to see it for yourself. Usually my husband magically appeared when this task had to be done.
Layout
We fit the stones into an area already bounded on three sides by a concrete sidewalk. The unpaved part used to be a planter bed, but it is now our unique entrance to the Grandma Garden. Cutting some of the geckos was necessary to get a straight edge at the existing concrete border. I picked three colors for the walkway itself, brown, tan and red, one color for each gecko orientation. But the border geckos that were cut were left uncolored – the ghost geckos. They kind of blend in with the adjacent sidewalk and, besides, I didn’t want to have to cut the “live” geckos!
Acquiring the materials.
First of all – read and heed John August’s directions. He is right.
The concrete mix:
Because of the way I worked – a little at a time when I had the time, keeping enough concrete, sand and aggregate in my garage for the entire project was just not very practical. So, I used 60-pound bags of pre-mixed concrete mix, either Quikrete or Sakrete, depending on whether I shopped at Home Depot or Lowes. They are pretty much equivalent in content and quality and are interchangeable as far as the final product. A 60-pound bag will make 3 gecko stones with a little bit of concrete left over. I used the leftover to make some stones using another mold that I already had. And I occasionally made some unusual items, like the concrete hamburgers that I put on the grill to surprise my husband.
Concrete dyes:
I never did find a good local source for the concrete dyes that John August recommended, so I went with off-the-shelf products from the home improvement stores. Here’s what I learned. There is a big difference in the dyes made by Quikrete and Sakrete. The Quikrete dyes are liquid and are mixed with the water before adding it to the dry concrete mix. This is very easy except for one thing. The dyes come packaged for two 60-pound bags of concrete mix and I only made a single bag at a time, so the jar had to be divided, which is not always easy with the vile, viscous potion. The stuff gets everywhere and stains! Our driveway, my main work area, is now a multi-hued concrete palette. I kind of like it, but none of the neighbors have yet tried to copy it.
The Sakrete dye, on the other hand, is powdered and is mixed with the dry cement before adding the water. This takes a little more work than the liquid dye, but I think the colors that result from the powdered dye are richer. And each package is used for a single bag of concrete mix, so no measuring is required and it is a lot neater.
Release Agent:
The Crete-Lease stuff works great. I didn’t try any other product. Why mess with success? Here is a conversation that I had with the guy at Cresset that took my order over the phone:
Me: “Hi, I’d like to order 2 aerosol cans of your Crete-Lease VOC-20.
Cresset guy: “I’d be happy to send those to you. You must be making the Gecko Stones”.
Me: “How did you know? Are GeckoStone makers the only small-time buyers of Crete-Lease?”
Cresset guy: “Just the women, ma’am.”
Now, I’m sure that it’s not only women making the stones, but maybe we are the only ones following John August’s recommendation for release agents. But this conversation left me with the vision of a network of industrious women around the country, maybe around the world, with no knowledge of each other, but all sharing the common traits of good humor, strong backs, abundant patience and an appreciation for geometric proportion. In a time of international crisis, we could all be called to duty by John August, himself, or possibly by an authorized representative of the Cresset Company, to come to the aid of our ailing and asymmetric planet.
Preparation
Making 3 geckos at a time is a slow process. It will take many batches to get a full walkway. Keep everything you need in one place so when the opportunity arises, you can whip up a batch in 26 hours or so. (One hour for preparation, 24 hours of waiting, 1 hour for release and clean up).
The difference between too little water and too much water in a concrete mix is a very small amount – we’re talking a few ounces for a 60-pound bag of concrete. So add water slowly near the end.
I needed a lot more water than the bagged concrete mix called for. This may weaken the stones a little, but resulted in a much smoother appearance with fewer pockmarks. The directions call for 3 quarts of water for a 60-pound bag of mix. I added this much, then, a little at a time; I added more to make the mix workable. I usually end up with just short of one gallon total water added.
I tried several methods of mixing concrete, but by the end of the project I ended up just mixing the concrete manually in a plastic mortar tub made just for this kind of thing. They have them at the home improvement stores for about $6 each. I started out using a long, narrow-blade shovel to turn and mix the concrete. After a few batches, my husband suggested that I get a hoe. I told him that I didn’t exactly think those were the kind of skills that this job called for. After he regained his composure, he explained that he meant the garden implement, not the oldest profession. He was right, the hoe was very helpful and we’ve nicknamed her “Madame”. (She resides in the garage with Cindy, the loppers).
Filling the molds is the second most enjoyable part of the process (freeing the geckos from their molds is the first). Put on your heavy rubber gloves and fill the extremities by hand. Lots of patting and tamping will allow the concrete to fill all the void spaces and result in very pretty geckos. And it’s really fun.
And I requisitioned a little-used vibrator for ensuring that all the air bubbles were out of the concrete mix, so the edges of the stones would be nice and smooth. This is a mesmerizing procedure – to watch the concrete liquefy from the vibration and become a miniature, turbulent, boiling sea. Hard to explain – you’ll have to see it for yourself. Usually my husband magically appeared when this task had to be done.
Layout
We fit the stones into an area already bounded on three sides by a concrete sidewalk. The unpaved part used to be a planter bed, but it is now our unique entrance to the Grandma Garden. Cutting some of the geckos was necessary to get a straight edge at the existing concrete border. I picked three colors for the walkway itself, brown, tan and red, one color for each gecko orientation. But the border geckos that were cut were left uncolored – the ghost geckos. They kind of blend in with the adjacent sidewalk and, besides, I didn’t want to have to cut the “live” geckos!
We laid the stones out in the garage to get the correct alignment and patterns before I put them in the garden. I actually did some work on the computer using AutoCad to try to get the best layout – but ultimately, just laying them out on the smooth, level garage floor was the best way to visualize, measure and plan. I numbered each stone and diagramed the numbering system, so they could be transferred to their final spot without any decision-making during manual labor.
My husband used a hand-held, circular, right-angle saw with a masonry cutoff wheel to cut the ghost geckos. The blades don’t really cut; they grind the concrete. And the blades aren’t big enough to go all the way through the geckos, so he had to cut into both the top and the bottom. The remaining ½ to ¾ inch had to be broken, but it was pretty easy to do. The result is a nice, straight line on the top and bottom, but a bit of an uneven line where the stone had to be broken. But since the uneven part is not visible, it turned out OK.
Before placing the stones in the walkway, we dug down to about 6 inches and compacted the soil. The native soil is mostly sand, so we didn’t worry about digging much deeper and putting an underlayment of gravel, which some soils would require. Then we added about 2 inches of clean sand. We constructed a leveling tool that was the same width as the walkway with overhanging handles that would be flush with the existing sidewalk on both sides. The straight edge hanging down into the walkway area was the exact depth of the GeckoStones, so we could easily create a smooth, flat surface over the entire walk, which would match the existing grade perfectly.
Once the grade was set, it took two adults and four hungry teenagers, who were promised pizza at the completion of the job, about 1-1/2 hours to move the geckos from the garage to the walkway and place them. The last step was to sweep sand between the crevices. This part of the job was so much easier than I had imagined.
I get a lot of compliments on my gecko walkway. I wouldn’t discourage anyone from taking on this job, but just begin with patience, keep your sense of humor and be ready when called to duty by the Cresset guy.
My husband used a hand-held, circular, right-angle saw with a masonry cutoff wheel to cut the ghost geckos. The blades don’t really cut; they grind the concrete. And the blades aren’t big enough to go all the way through the geckos, so he had to cut into both the top and the bottom. The remaining ½ to ¾ inch had to be broken, but it was pretty easy to do. The result is a nice, straight line on the top and bottom, but a bit of an uneven line where the stone had to be broken. But since the uneven part is not visible, it turned out OK.
Before placing the stones in the walkway, we dug down to about 6 inches and compacted the soil. The native soil is mostly sand, so we didn’t worry about digging much deeper and putting an underlayment of gravel, which some soils would require. Then we added about 2 inches of clean sand. We constructed a leveling tool that was the same width as the walkway with overhanging handles that would be flush with the existing sidewalk on both sides. The straight edge hanging down into the walkway area was the exact depth of the GeckoStones, so we could easily create a smooth, flat surface over the entire walk, which would match the existing grade perfectly.
Once the grade was set, it took two adults and four hungry teenagers, who were promised pizza at the completion of the job, about 1-1/2 hours to move the geckos from the garage to the walkway and place them. The last step was to sweep sand between the crevices. This part of the job was so much easier than I had imagined.
I get a lot of compliments on my gecko walkway. I wouldn’t discourage anyone from taking on this job, but just begin with patience, keep your sense of humor and be ready when called to duty by the Cresset guy.
One week later, most plants have emerged in the square foot garden. I planted 2 small sage plants, a cabbage plug and an established pepper plant, but all the rest are from seeds. The black tepary beans came up overnight and are already getting big enough that we need to think about getting the trellis ready.
