Mosaic in the Garden

I have been itching to do some mosaic but I needed a few sunny days. Doing mosaic can be a bit hazardous when cutting and breaking tiles or plates, shards of sharp tiles can fly every where not to mention tile adhesive and grout. With a window of fine weather forecast, I rang my friend Sue to say "come and spend a few days in my garden, I will show you how to mosaic!"

I have a statue in the garden but his glaze (I think its paint) is peeling off his terracotta body. The statue became the candidate for my mosaic makeover, my other option had been a lamp base. For this project I used tiles I already had, this restricted and influenced my design and colour palette. Sue brought a large charger of a plate to decorate, broken plates and cabochons of glass were her tesserae of choice. We spent three productive days in the garden doing our mosaic. Sue finished her plate but still needs to grout it. I on the other hand took nearly a week to complete my piece, it is more time consuming than you think. Before his makeover my statue looked a little sad hidden away in the shrubbery now he has centre stage.

It was during the *London Olympics we did our mosaics, to commemorate the event I put '2012' on the back of my statue.

*I thought the London Olympics were excellent, the Opening Ceremony stunning, especially 'Pandemonium'. My ancestors were coalminers during the industrial revolution from working on the land to working in a dark pit, Danny Boyle illustrated it beautifully. It touched a chord with me seeing the turmoil and pace of change the industrial revolution brought, my forebears did that with blood sweat and tears.

My friend Ann is a games maker at the London Paralympics, she was lucky enough to be part of the audience that saw the dress rehearsal of the Opening Ceremony and although she kept the secret she hinted it was "so fantastic it gave me goosebumps" it did not disappoint. I am hoping Ann will do a guest post about her experience at the Paralympics, they have been excellent too.