water bowl construction

insted of buying one of the nice stone water dishes at the pet store, i'm planning on making my own. i live right next to lake superior, so i ran down to the shore and grabbed a bunch of really smooth rocks that i'm going to embed in modeling clay. should end up looking really cool
anyway, i wanted to see if anyone has tried something like this and what kind of clay and glazes can be used. i was at a craft store today, but everything i looked at had warnings not to eat or drink from the material.

bowls are 4 bucks at the store ;/ ... but i really dont see why a glaze is needed, just use some nontoxic hardener to bind them together, and just make sure you bake or boil the rocs first, if not both.

bowls may be 4 bucks, but this would be way cooler. the glaze i wasn't for sure on, i just assumed i would need it to waterproof and seal the clay and rocks

I just bought 10 ceramic water dishes at the dollar store for $1.00 each. But if you want to give it a shot go for it, just be carefull what you use, the ceramic water dishes I bought are glazed but Im sure they are also fired in a Kiln....

thats the thing, i don't want to hear about the cheap (and frankly very reasonable) bowls out there because i already have one. i'm doing this as a project that i thought would look really cool in a display tank. i just want to know if anyone has some suggestions on a material that doesn't have health warnings all over it, or whether my concerns are misplaced.

Another idea would be to imbed a clear plastic bowl in the middle then glaze/clay and rock around it. Then there is no worries about health risks from drinking from it...and it will be much easier to clean (and should last longer since the water won't seep into the glaze.)

Just a thought.

just an idea you could buy a sheet of foam and use a blow torch to melt it in for the water.Then grout it all, with a different color grout.Then with your extra supplies you can go ahead and make a rock wall if you want it to be a display tank.:gj:

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Originally Posted by lord jackel

Another idea would be to imbed a clear plastic bowl in the middle then glaze/clay and rock around it. Then there is no worries about health risks from drinking from it...and it will be much easier to clean (and should last longer since the water won't seep into the glaze.)

Just a thought.

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hadn't even thought of doing it that way, that's a good idea.