  
Welcome to The Next Step Stained Glass Stepping Stone site. We carefully hand make every stone we sell. We also do custom orders - we can turn almost anything into a stained glass pattern to be put onto a stepping stone.
 Unlike many Stained Glass Stepping Stone sellers who only place one or two samples or examples of each of their patterns on their sites, we want you to see the actual stone you wish to purchase before you buy. Variations in glass make it impossible to use examples and be sure you are satisfied with the stone you buy. By actually putting a scanning of all currently available stones, you can pick the exact one to suit your tastes - and by putting past examples that have already been sold, you can judge consistent quality and perhaps request a specific combination that is not currently made, but might be duplicated closely. Right now, there are pictures of 927
stones on the site - 13
currently made and immediately available for your purchase (of course, any of the patterns can be ordered if they are not currently available), and 914
that have previously been sold, for you to view as examples (these numbers are dynamically updated every time this page is loaded, so they are always accurate). Unfortunately, we don't have scannings of many of our stones that we have sold locally in the early days of our business - so you will just have to judge us by the ones we have made since we started scanning them. Scanning them is a lot of work - for the large stones, we have to make 4 to 5 passes on the scanner, moving the stone each time, and then assemble all those pieces in Photoshop® (after rotating and nudging them around a number of times to get the pieces to line up properly) - but it's well worth it for the quality of the image that we can present to you.
We have literally hundreds of patterns available, so if you have something specific or special in mind, just ask, and you might well receive (a copy of a pattern to approve, that is...). Or if you want something really special, try having a Custom Stepping Stone made - they make very special gifts for many occasions. For more details check our custom pattern page.
 We make the stones we sell out of hand picked and cut glass, mortar, and fiber-reinforced concrete. Fiber reinforced concrete is much stronger than normal concrete, even when it is reinforced with wire mesh. The fiber reinforcing permeates the concrete in all areas and binds it together totally, not just in the area of the wire like non-fiber reinforced stones. While we don't recommend having your pet elephant do a Flamenco Dance on them, our stones are so strong that even your 400 lb "Cousin Bubba" can jump up and down on them and not crack the stone or the glass, as long as they are supported on a firm, level surface (we recommend a bed of 1/2" to 1" of plain old ordinary sand). For more details on how we make our stones, and why they are higher quality than any others you will encounter, check out our "How They're Made" page.
The Latest News:
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  10/1/01 - Until September 11, 2002, all American Flag pattern stones, including the brand  Heart of America will generate a $20 donation to the Ameican Red Cross for every sale, and all stones will have inscribed on the reverse “In Memory of September 11, 2001.”
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- 4/2/01 - We've done it once again. If you've scanned our site, you know that we are constantly working to make our stones even better. Our most recent discovery is a brand new additive for concrete that, while it does not make the stones any stronger, does cut shrinkage by up to 80%. As of April, 2001, all new stones made will use this new additive. Click here to read more aobut why this is important.
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- 3/22/01 - We've put our Spring Colors on for you. Each season, we change our site’s theme colors to harmonize with nature’s colors. And because spring seems to have arrived early, at least here, we've shed our cool winter colors for the green buds of spring. As a benefit to you, until April 15, 2001, you can take $10 off of any available, in stock stone on the site if you mention this note!
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- 2/24/01 - We've had some comments from browsers that it's tedious to find all the available stones by searching each pattern. So, in response, to make it easier for you to find stones that are currently made and available for immediate shipping (as opposed to ordering one to be made), we've added a dynamically updated page to show all available stones at any time - be warned, this page takes a long time to load due to all the pictures. You can find the link in the “Search for Your Kind of Stuff” area of the left side navigation bar, or click here.
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- 2/18/01 - We've been very busy of late adding even more new patterns for you to choose from. To make it even easier for you to find these new patterns, we've added several ways to locate them (there are 3
of them right now out of a total of 180
patterns currently in production). To go to a dynamically updated page showing only the newest patterns, click on the appropriate link at the bottom of every page or under the Search options in the left side navigation bar.
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- 1/28/01 - We've now added the ability for you to find a random pattern. Under "Themes" at the bottom of every page, or under the Search option in the left side navigation bar (where it appears) is a "Choose a Random Link" option - click it and you will be taken randomly to one of the individual stone pattern pages. This is for those who just can't make up their minds which pattern(s) to check out first, as well as those who just like surprises.
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- 1/25/01 - We've now added a search engine to every page with a navigation/menu bar at the left. You can find your favorite stones even more easily now. Look for it near the top of the navigation bar, and type in the things you are looking for. Choose “Any” or “All” words to search for, click the “Search Our Site” button (or press [Enter] or [Return]) and Voilà!.
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- 5/15/00 - Once again, we are even more pleased to make the announcement that our stepping stones are yet stronger than before! On October 1, 1999, we reported that all our stones are being made with a new, stronger concrete formula that increased the strength dramatically, even over our previously strong stones. Well, guess what? As of May 15, 2000, we've improved our concrete formulation AGAIN. For further information, click here.
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- Votive Candle Holders! Light your deck, table, or walkway our new product. Check them out here!
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- We've added a set of "Theme" categories you can use to help you search for your favorite pattern of stone - these "themes" are listed at the bottom of the pages and have groupings of similar patterns of stones no matter what their size and shape, so that if you are looking for flowers, for example, you can just click on the Flowers & Garden theme and see all the stones that have flowers in them. We hope this helps you find a stone you love even faster.
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- For a schedule of upcoming events where we will be selling our stones, please see the Awards & Shows page.
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