Meredith Hailey (pictured, left), a real estate broker for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Northwest (a BTB Advertiser), paints doors and tiny homes on rocks, then leaves them around Burien.
She is one of a handful of artists in the Burien Rocks group. If you look carefully around town, you might find one of these houses. There’s a chance, too, you may find a heart, a turtle, a delightful abstract, or a beautiful beach scene.
Burien Rocks encourages finders to post pictures of the art rocks they find. Once found, the rock can be kept, or can be hidden again for the next lucky local.
Beyond just being a hide-and-seek game, Burien Rocks also helps build community. Recently, while painting tiny homes at the Berkshire Hathaway booth during this year’s first Farmer’s Market, Meredith gave away some painted rocks to visitors to keep or hide for others. Some have already shown up in pictures on the Burien Rocks page. One, though, went home as a gift.
“After a jaunt to the Burien Farmers Market, my daughter returned with a beautifully handpainted rock resembling a house,” Lorie McMasters told The B-Town Blog. “She let me know it was on a table and was free.”
Lorie adds that – with a minor amount of “investigating” – she found the ‘Burien Rocks’ group on Facebook, whose main purpose is to connect our community folks with these lovely little gems by hiding them around our area. Somewhere on each rock is the label Burien Rocks and possibly the artist’s name. The finder can post a picture on Burien Rocks and perhaps make a new friend or simply become part of a new local network.
“My house rock became even more special when i met the artist Meredith,” Lorie added. “I now have two of her houses that will be very hard to regift! Her gems are even more special when i found out she’s a real estate agent!”
Lorie, who is recovering from a recent serious surgery, says that she gets together with friends to “adult color” and share each other’s lives.
“We now have a new outlet with the added twist of community building!”
“That I got to see first hand that one tiny home could brighten someone’s day so thoroughly touched my heart,” Meredith said. She and her son have now met Lorie, and are part of a larger team wishing her a full and speedy recovery.
Burien Rocks will be teaming up with Meredith at Berkshire Hathaway to hold an evening painting event for adults soon. When the date, time, and place are set, it will be announced right here on The B-Town Blog.
For more information:
- Find rocks to paint. You can actually buy flat, clean rocks at places like Michael’s, Lowes and Home Depot or go to the beach and get your own. You might need to wash them first.
- Paint – I suggest quality paint pens. Pasca paint pens seem to be the best and are only sold on the internet from places like Amazon. Sharpie paint pens are also really good. Paint pens come in different tip sizes, extra fine is best for detail while medium can fill in large areas. If you are comfortable with real paint and brushes go for it. But me, I like the paint pens. Regular markers don’t work very well. It has to be paint pens.
- Sealant – you do have to seal the rocks if you plan on placing them outside. Otherwise our rainy weather will erode the paint off. I recommend Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch 2XÂ 12 oz. Gloss Clear General Purpose Spray Paint. The first coat has to go on from about 15″ away and super light. If you use to much it will make your paint run and ruin your hard work. After that first light coat dries you can get a little closer and hit it with more spray. 3-4 coats works well. Let dry between. Use outdoors, it stinks.Extras – a heatgun works great to dry paint fast so you can put another coat, layer or color on. Or just get it ready to hide faster.Magnets can make your rocks stick to the fridge.Hot glue gun to glue on googly eyes or?Remember to write “Burien Rocks” on the back and ask them to post a pic. That’s how this group will grow.
How great to plant Little surprises that focus us on the real world at our feet instead of a digital display from cyberspace. thank you!
Meredith, Thanks for the tutorial!! I use rocks to hold various things down in my garden and to mark planted areas. As much as I like some of the rocks which I have gathered for this purpose – petrified wood, obsidian, etc., some rocks are just rocks and could stand a little gussying up. I see a little paint and glitter in my future. Thanks for the inspiration!