Monday 5 April 2010

Cracking piece of work, Gromit!

I got messy this week, with my mosaic mirror. Annoyingly, it's not one of those crafts you can do sitting by the fire, watching telly, with the puppy on your lap. You need a dust mask, industrial strength gardening gloves (which make holding anything like trying to grab on to a wobbly jelly) your working area (and yourself) wrapped up like a Christo artwork, a plastic bag to work inside to stop shards flying everywhere, goggles, and strictly no puppies. 



I used a few of my stash of found pieces - a collection I've hoarded over the years and just knew it would come in handy for something. Argh, our house is full of things both Paul and I think 'will come in handy for something'! It means we have a lot of things that haven't yet found their purpose in life (Thinks: ooh, I can now mosaic most of them though...).


The sticking bit was really addictive and I stayed up late to finish it off (impressive, believe me. I never stay up late). The challenge of finding the right smashed-up piece to fit in the gaps was fun. No, really - where are you going, come back! It was fun!!!




The tricky bit: waiting for 24 long hours for the glue to dry. Grrrrrr. Not good for a crafter like myself, who is used to rushing headlong into the next process. I really had to sit on my hands to stop myself moving the pieces of china - I kept wanting to re-arrange or even go back and fill in some of the larger gaps. argh!


Enter stage left: THE BLUE GROUT! White grout? No way. I like colour too much so I added some blue pigment and got mixing. Well, I thought the cutting bit was messy - but this turned my work room into a building site. Blue grout everywhere. And when it dried it went all powdery so there was blue powdery mess, (like lines of a Smurf's recreational drug or something...)!?! Not to mention my hands, which were blue, as I'd dispensed with the jelly-gloves at this point. All that done with, I had to wait another 48 long hours for the grout to dry to its finished colour. I gave it a lick of acrylic paint round the edges and then...ta-da...that was it:


 Finished! Shame the bathroom wall isn't quite as finished :) There's a bucket of B&Q's finest 'Turtle Seas' waiting to go on the wall - I just have to get round to doing it. However, there may be a problem because these caught my eye in a charity shop:


And I might just find smashing these to smithereens slightly (ever so slightly) more interesting than decorating.

9 comments:

  1. Oh wow, that is just so cool!

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  2. LOVE this! Reminds me of that exhibition we saw in Bath a few years ago. Clever you!

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  3. That looks just great! I totally agree, the blue groat looks fab. How clever! Ros

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  4. The mirror looks lovely, I wish I could find such pretty cups and saucers at our local charity shop, there's never anything with such nice patterns which is a shame as I'd like some

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  5. That mirror looks amazing :) I'm very inspired to start collecting up old bits of china to have a go - like I need a new hobby!

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  6. wow, that looks fabulous!! you are so clever!

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  7. Thats a fantastic mirro. I've always wanted to have a go at it but it all seems too technical to me.
    I've been poking through your older posts and seen your old and new dogs..so sorry you lost your old friend, I know all about that, but you've done what we chickened out of and got a new one,so cute.

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  8. Wow!!!!!! The mirror is just amazing! Love it!

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