Rock displaying on the "water plain"

When we go out hiking or camping we are VERY likely to come back with a rock or two.

these rocks act as sort of a souvenir of the trip, so it seems fitting that we should have a way to present them (at least until they get lost in our landscape). This would also give me a location to organize our collection of "keepers". my other initial goal with this project is to teach the boys about the elements of composition in 3D.

in summary our project is a sort of simplified residential back yard version of a Japanese contemplation rock garden.

the idea is simple: create a large plain of smaller rock that will act as a body of water and then position smaller rocks that will function as small islands.

our scale is very small so i opted for sand as the water. the sand is also easier for picking out debris because it just sits on top versus getting in between the larger pebbles.

to add to the fun, we are making little boats to really help them along in the transition of imaging a large sandbox as a body of water.

back yard rock display with boats

 copper boats vs steel boats, working on our scale

my next step in this project is to see how we can also turn it into a sort of Battle Ship game.

i think a small armada on each side with catapults, like our indoor Crush the Castle game.

back yard rock display with boats

backyard rock display with boats

 the steel from this boat is the binding for railroad tie bails

other materials are bamboo skewers and some scrap cedar.

making boats for backyard rock display

a quick plug for these Milwaukee Markers. these are really holding up well. very good for marking on abused surfaces, metal and wood.