Was asked to give these instructions on these sites also.
See below.
Beth
-----Original Message-----
From: abcfhist <abcfhist(a)valley2.valleyint.com>
To: CAMPBELL-L(a)rootsweb.com <CAMPBELL-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Date: Tuesday, June 12, 2001 11:35 PM
Subject: Re: New tombstone on an old grave
Good Afternoon,
I have a little time so thought I would write the instructions down for you
in the simplest form that I can so that the beginners may understand them.
To someone of you it will be old hat.
Now, if you have a marbel bread board or just a hardwood breadboard,
measure
it and add four inches to both the longth and width. Now you are
ready to
take that use pallet or some 1/4 inch x 4 innch boards and saw them so
that
you have two board the length and two boards the width. Now nail
them
into
forms. Hammer them together lightly for you will later be knocking
them
apart. Set this form aside.
Now take a piece of paper (I use copy paper) and write or print (what ever
you do best) on this paper the name of the person who you want this stone
for and the information that you wish. Under the date of birth and death,
I
usually write the place and also wife of - or husband of - or son of
- or
etc. with the appropreate name and information.
Now, for some of you this next part will be a piece of cake, for other of
lyou, take courage, you can do it, or if you wish, just forget it.
practice
makeing a curve line with three cross's on it to put in either the
lower
right side of the stone or in the upper left corner. Or if the stone is
for a child, you may want to make two circles with ears on the top circle
and a tail on the bottom circle. You may make simple rabbits, cats,
flowers, leaves etc. Use you own ideas but keep them VERY SIMPLE
Now, with a WASHABLE marking pen, put the design you decided upon onto the
marble breadboard or wooden breadboard. If you make a mistake, wash it off
and redo it untill you are satisified. It need not be perfect. This is a
personal headstone and it gives a loveing touch to have someone take the
time to make it, a slight errors is fine.
Now take a dremell tool with a diamond engraveing bit and engrave what you
have written.
It is fine without doing the painting step, however, I usually do. I take
model paint and paint what has been engraved. If it is a little girl, I
might make the bunny white and flowers (five little circles with a small
circle in the middle and two line curving out from this) pink with the
small
circle yellow. For a little boy, I might make a little cat and paint
it
white - orange - brown etc with flowers of blue with small circle of
yellow - the curves of green. When you have done this to your
satisfaction, spray LIGHTLY with polyurethene. You can get a can of
polyurthene airisal at a hardware store or a craft store, let it dry and
spray again LIGHTLY about three times. set the breadboards aside
Now take the wooden forms and set out in the back yard on some grass where
it won't be noticed, Take the bag of ready mix concrete and mix in a
container, I use an empty 5 gal. detergent bucket. Pour this mix into the
form up to about 2 inches from the top. Let this sit for a while untill it
is firm enough to hold up the beadboard, when the bread board is place in
the center of the form and press down even with the mix.
Now I let this concrete and breadboard sit overnight to dry. When the
concrete is dry, knock the frame form away. I keep these forms for the
next time I want to make a stone. Now take a small can of liquid
polyurthene ( you may buy at a hardware or paint store) and pour on the
whole gravemarker, breadboards and concrete, smooth with an old paint brush
and let dry.
Your gravestone is now complete. All you have to do now is pick it up and
take it to the grave and set it in place. I hope that you are proud of
your efforts. For those of you that wish, send me you snail mail address
and I will send you the patterns that I have used and you may copy that
form
but for those of you who are advance, use your own artist skills You
might
even want to make a form for the base and then another larger form to sit
on
it with the information. If you run into problems, just e-mail me.
Let me
know how you do.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Beth
-----Original Message-----
From: sharon mcnabb <shrnmcnabb(a)hotmail.com>
To: CAMPBELL-L(a)rootsweb.com <CAMPBELL-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Date: Tuesday, June 12, 2001 10:28 AM
Subject: Re: New tombstone on an old grave
>BETH
>Please send me info on the "TOMBSTONE PROCESS" please.
>Thankyou for your generosity to the list!!!
>
>Sharon McNabb
>_________________________________________________________________________
>Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at
http://www.hotmail.com.
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