Category: Mosaic

The mosaic birdbath I made last year for my daughter Mariel was damaged when high winds during a February 4th storm sheared off a massive tree branch that came crashing down onto the bird bath in her back yard in Pacifica.

When the tree was removed, the birdbath was four pieces. I was hopeful that I could put the pieces back together using concrete epoxy. Who knew? This thick gray stuff was nasty, but effective. It was designed for gluing marble headstones back on their bases, so I figured it would be tough enough to hold together a bird bath.

Once together, I had to use a Dremel tool to carve out space for the replacement tiles. Mariel found many of the original tiles and one of the eyes, on the ground and I used all of them in the restoration. The gallery below takes you through the entire restoration.

It was a fun project and I think the end result is almost identical to the original. You can see some slight differences below. The original is on the right with the bird visiting.

The mosaic birdbath I made last year for my daughter Mariel was damaged when high winds during a February 4th storm sheared off a massive tree branch that came crashing down into her yard in Pacifica. The branch, from a tree on the neighboring property, flattened a section of fence and damaged a backyard gazebo. Most importantly, no one was hurt.

It wasn’t until the debris was removed that the fate of the Octopus birdbath was discovered. I think the pedestal helped the branch split the birdbath into four pieces.

I’ve done some preliminary research. There are epoxy adhesives designed for concrete. I don’t know if I’ll need to drill holes in the pieces and add some sort of metal reinforcing rod.

I don’t know how it would look, but just for fun I might restore it and employ the Japanese art of Kintsugi – where broken pottery is repaired using resin with gold dust in it. I might work if I can’t properly cover the break lines. This would be a decorative, not a structural part of the repair. (But I always get these crazy ideas that I usually scale back.)

I pick up the bird bath pieces next month and now I have a spring restoration project. Hopefully I can make it like new…or better!

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”