Starting the Mosaic
Last Friday I started my mosaic project. This feat is most likely going to take me the rest of the summer. At least, if I am lucky it will only take that long. It has taken me several years to get started. I got the idea when I saw Isaiah Zagar’s work while visiting Philadelphia in March 2011. I knew that I was going to need to repaint the foundation of my house sooner or later and decided that a mosaic would be more fun.
The first step was to clean the leaves out of the area.
Next, I washed the dishes and other pottery that I have been collecting since 2011. One box of broken dishes I pulled out of the trash in South Carolina. Douglas could not believe that I was going to bring “that junk” home with me. He has been a little annoyed that it has been taking up room in our basement since then. Luckily, he liked the beginning of my mosaic more than he thought he would, so now I think he is glad I saved all those broken bits of ceramic.
My friend Sarah came over to help me get started. She is an amazing artist with pieces around Westchester County. I am thrilled that she offered me her assistance with this project. We set up our work space, and I started breaking the plates into even smaller pieces. I had a blast smashing things.
The next step was to lay out the shards in a pattern.
This was my first attempt, but Sarah thought that it was too random.
My second try was more cohesive.
Next we needed to get the tile on the wall. It was not much different that laying tile on the floor or on my backsplash. This time was just more fun because I was able to create the pattern.
Sarah’s assistance was a huge benefit and also made the work more fun.
The first day we were able to do the window sill and part of the side.
A couple of days later, I finished the sides of the window and did the wall under the window. Here was the pattern I laid out for below the window.
I used the board to make sure that the tile would not sit directly on the driveway. Before putting the board down, I scraped of all of the loose bits of paint on the foundation.
The finished product looked a bit different that the original design. It ended up being wider than I laid out, but I really like how it turned out.
My plan was to grout the mosaic the next day. Mother Nature had other plans. She decided to send rain our way for the next two days. I now hope to grout today shortly after this post is published. Keep your fingers crossed for me! And if you live in the area, please give me any broken plates or other pottery that you might have. I especially need green and brown for the next section, but I will take any color or pattern available.
Update: I grouted last night. It took a lot longer than I anticipated, but it looks spectacular!
Happy Homemaking!
I am a teacher, traveler, artist, writer, homemaker and a whole lot more. In January 2009, I bought the Cape of Dreams. It was the second house that I had ever owned, but it was the first that I bought by myself. I now live in the house with my husband Douglas, our dog Kahlua, and Crème de Menthe, the cat. Because, what life is complete without a little Kahlua and Cream? I love arts and crafts of all kinds, and I refinish furniture as well. We are slowly redoing our entire house. You can read about my projects on my blog www.CapeofDreams.com
Kind of like quilting laying out the pieces to see what looks good together. I don’t think I could break pottery on purpose to make the pieces, esp, not the pretty pot with vines. I do have accidentally busted dishes I lay under flowers in patterns. I’ve seen mirror shards used in mosaics as well, super pretty.
good luck, looks pretty
What is the goop making the pieces stick?
We used mortar to make the pieces stick just as one would when laying any kind of tile. I agree that it would be awful to break plates just for this purpose. All of the plates were chipped, cracked or already broken. The problem is going to be finding enough broken pieces for the project.
Darling Sarah! So great to see her on the blog! You’re already getting excellent results with your mosaic. What a cool project!
Sarah was such a doll to help out. We had fun.
I love this so much! You are amazing beautiful sister!
Thank you, sister! I think you should come help out on a section!
Love, love, love it. I wish I lived near you so some of my plates could end up in your lovely mosaic (I have tons with chips that I just can’t bring myself to throw away.) This is a beautiful project. Jo @ Let’s Face the Music
I am in Maryland now. How far are you from Frederick again? Do you have any free time tomorrow? Maybe I could stop by for a bit or we could meet up somewhere.
I emailed you. Jo
This is an amazingly cool project!! I have mosaicked with beach rocks and broken tiles … it’s really fun. Maybe you can get salvaged tiles at a secondhand architectural store? Again, so envious of your free summer!!
There are no architectural salvage stores very close to me. I really wish there were! So far, I have gotten dishes from several friends, including Jo! We will see how far I can make it with what I have.
Very nice. I really like the idea of artistic personalization of a home. Your project is a bright spark of uniqueness. It’s going to look great when you are done. I’m looking forward to seeing it completed.
I like your perspective! My mother was horrified that I would do this because it would be “bad for resale.” However, I love the look and am thrilled to have my driveway look better.
I think artistic personality HELPS resale! Besides, if someone doesn’t like it, they don’t deserve your cute little house.
I think that it is going to be a long time before we ever sell, so I am not going to worry about it. I told me mom that maybe there will be people who will pay extra for my house with its one-of-a-kind artwork!
I love it!!! How cool is that? Beautiful!!!
Thank you, thank you!
You did an amazing work here!
It was hard work but worth the sweat!
Hi Jessica! I was very interested to read about your mosaic. I too, am doing a mosaic (in my courtyard) and am discovering that it takes far longer than anticipated! I’m blogging about it, so you might like to compare notes…
How lucky you are to have an artist friend to help you out! Also, I love how the dark grout brought the colours out in your design. It looks amazing.
Looking forward to reading more!
Jenny (Gold Coast, Australia)
Your mosaic is very cool. I am thrilled that you found my blog and will start following you.
Great! Chat soon. 🙂
I love it! Would love to come help when you do another section.
Hint, if you are looking for plates etc., check out The Cherry Door on Main Street in Tarrytown. It’s the thrift shop for the Phelps Memorial Hospital, and they have an ever-changing selection.
Also–the Thrifty Squirrel, right upstairs from where Hank’s Alley used to be (Kaldenberg Place, one block south of Broadway between Main and Central in Tarrytown) is going out of business and selling everything at 50% off.
If you feel like having lunch one Saturday and taking a prowl, let me know.
Thanks for the comment. I will send you an email about meeting up one Saturday.