Paving stones.
Stones?
Pavers!
These concrete pavers feature little tabs and slots at their base to (somewhat successfully) hold them in alignment with their neighbours.
A six-by-six grid of these enables a possible 2046 unique symmetrical patterns if I’ve done my maths correctly, and over 50,000 if I haven’t.
The finished pavers are black concrete.
To make them, I first created a model in 3mm layers of MDF. The corners and edges of the model were filled and smoothed with acrylic gap-filler for a more rounded transition between the layers.
A silicone mould was made from the model with household roofing silicone thinned with a little turps (this is substantially cheaper than pro mould-making silicone, and more than good enough for this job). Three moulds were made so that casting could go a little faster.
Casting consisted of filling the moulds with a concrete slurry that also contained black powdered pigment. Each was left overnight to cure.
The pigment made the result considerably darker than the raw concrete, but not dark enough for my liking, so the finished pavers also received a top coat of a concrete sealant with more black pigment added : and that’s held up surprisingly well.
