Category: Art

I’ve made a new mosaic birdbath for my daughter Mariel.

It is designed around an octopus image that she liked. You can see the see the process below and even some rejected ideas like adding glass beads to be the suckers (too busy.) I learned from an earlier birdbath that I should use black grout which doesn’t show algae and makes the birdbath easier to keep clean.

This is my latest mosaic project. My wife Rodi found this cast iron table at a garden sale. It had plenty of patina (aka rust) which we didn’t want to touch. It was missing a top. I used thin-set mortar to adhere Morjo™ marble mosaic cutting strips to a 9 1/4″ acetate disk. These 6mm strips are what professional mosaic artists in Europe use to make ancient reproductions and fine art murals. The sides of the strips have a honed finish and are not polished. The colors become more intense when it is sealed. The end result gives the piece an almost cork-like look.

I’ve never really thought of myself as being particularly artistic and I’m certainly not patient, but for some reason I enjoy doing mosaics.  A number of years ago after seeing a demo at the Getty Villa, my wife and I went to the Bay Area (closest!) to take a mosaic class.  We learned the basics such as how to cut the media and how to properly grout a project.  I’ve since gone on to make a half dozen or so mosaics as gifts to family or to keep for myself.  I’ve wanted to do some sort of outdoor mosaic and the opportunity finally presented itself when my daughter gave me a concrete bird bath that was sitting unused in her back yard.  Continue reading “Mosaic Bird Bath”