Mosaic art

More renovation at home means more ideas cluttering my brain!!!
So when it was time to do the main door, I went with my all-time-motto of adding a handmade touch to it.
I can't even remotely think about doing anything to do with carpentry work because the nightmares of using the saws and drills during the engineering time was enough to put me off it!!
So I decided to go with embedding a ceramic piece into the door surface.

For the first time, I tried using the mosaic technique and now I'm in love with this. Mosaics is such a beautiful way of creating a kind of handmade digital effect to any picture or design.
Its no doubt a very time-consuming process and the intricacies of it can baffle a beginner like it did to me.

A brief process was -
1) I traced the design that I wanted to do on a piece of tracing paper. I actually drew it because the dimensions had to be precise.
2) Then I stuck the tracing paper on the back of a mosaic net that was cut to the dimensions.
3) On the mosaic net, I started sticking the pre-cut mosaic pieces in the colours of my choice.


Here are some more photos of work in progress -


After the pieces were set properly, I applied the cement mixture on to the pieces. I let them seep into all the rough edges and gaps and left it to dry for about 10 hours. About midway through the drying process, I sponge-wiped the extra cement layer off the top of the ceramic pieces and....

The finished mosaic piece looks like this -





So every time I enter our house, I can see he handmade mosaic piece waving out to me and inspiring me to make more of mosaic art on various other surfaces!! Who knows, in a few years, I would make a complete house out of mosaics!!!

Finished level 1 - Pottery

The finished objects of my pottery love has come into existence!!!
The jewelry box, the vase and the bowl are all here.


I actually did not mean to paint them all red.. but somehow they turned out so.
Look at the crackle finish on the bottom of the bowl.. Isn't it lovely?

My next project is a ceramic charms mobile to hang over the crib or in the window.
I've taken print-outs of various charmy things like star, heart, butterfly, flower, cupcake, sun, moon and cut them out. Using the cut-outs I'm in the process of making small ceramic charms. Lets see how it turns out. Till then.. keep getting inspired!!!

Love,
Prachi