Cool Art Designs
Garden Art Mosaics: Create a Folk Art Shovel
How to make mosaics for the garden, using Pique Assiette Mosaic with broken china and other treasures from your world. Adhesives, supplies, tools, grouting instructions, and ideas for creating beautiful, unique folk art for indoors or out! How to cut china with tile nippers, where to find and how to use Capodimonte flowers and other antiques are included in this article.
Getting Started
This article explains the basic Pique Assiette mosaic technique for working on a  |
| Cutting Flowers |
metal or concrete base for outdoor use. Pique Assiette mosaic is a gratifying craft that requires neither formal training nor special skills, and you won't need the precision and patience of other crafts such as sewing, glass work, or jewelry-making. The instructions for my basic techniques have been fine-tuned through years of teaching this craft, both in regular art classes, and through feedback from my on-line instruction books. I've also gained knowledge from web-sites such as Mosaic Basics, Arctic Mermaid, Joy of Shards, and the hilarious UCM Museum. Pique Assiette mosaic provides much more freedom in style and form than the more common forms of mosaic. As you develop your own methods, you'll gain enthusiasm and may even grow as passionate about this craft as I have over the years. Every day you'll be bombarded with new ideas, and you'll view your surroundings in a whole new light. No rulers, grids, or precise tracing needed. Just break some dishes, mix up some mortar, and go to it! With a few small guidelines, of course. The search for materials is enjoyable on its own: finding just the right elements to use in a project, shopping for damaged antique china in the colors and patterns you love most, sorting through junk drawers and jewelry boxes, finding family keepsakes, browsing flea markets and thrift shops, building customized searches on E-Bay - in fact the search can become all-consuming. The basic materials needed for this craft are easy to find and fairly inexpensive- grout, mortar and mastic can be found in just about any hardware store.
Supply List
Detailed information is provided in the section following this list.- Concrete Thinset Mortar*
- Acrylic Mortar Additive*
- Grout*
- Plastic bowls and containers of various sizes
- Plastic or canvas drop cloths, plastic garbage bags, used plastic shopping bags
- Sturdy plastic or old metal forks and spoon
- Small and large plastic baggies for cutting shards
- Paper towels, old terrycloth washcloths & rags*
old dishes - Craft sticks
- Tooth Picks, one long nail*
- Disposable rubber gloves*
- Dust mask
- Spray bottle filled with water
- Old dishes, jewelry and other junk for your projects
- Shovel
- Tile nippers*
- Dremel or file*
*Best Tile Nippers for Pique Assiette Mosaic: The best nippers are the old dark grey or black ones pictured in the section on cutting china, below. These are hard to find, but can sometimes be picked up at tag sales where basement workshop contents are up for sale. I have one pair that was donated to me by the widow of a tile installer, and I guard these with my life. These old nippers are superior for their shape, heft, and cutting edge. If you c
an't find old ones, pick up a new pair in the flooring/tile section of any hardware store. Purchase a mid-range model, for around $14 -$18. Avoid the "heavy duty" nippers. *Mortar Instructions for MosaicsMortar is used as an adhesive for all concrete and metal-based projects. Mortar and grout both contain Portland cement, a substance that contains materials hazardous to the respiratory system and harsh
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| mortar powder and admix, with small amount of brown paint added |
Mortar comes colored in white or grey; which color to use depends on your project. For my concrete bird baths, I use grey. For other projects, I use white, and mix in a little brown paint so that any mortar the seeps up between the shards will blend with my brown grout (this is one of several "work-arounds" I've developed to compensate for my messy nature; if you are meticulous and detail-oriented, as many of my students are, you won't need to worry about this). I've recently started using pre-mixed mortar/additive blends for small projects. This product is easier and cleaner than mixing up powdered grout, but it has some drawbacks: It has a strong chemical odor, and I haven't time-tested the strength of this substance in outdoor use. *All About Grout in Mosaics: Grout and mortar appear to be similar, but they're not. The chemical reaction for each is different, as well as the end result after these substances have dried. Generally, I don't provide exact measurements for water/additive ratios for grout or mortar. This is disconcerting to my students; we all like to be able to follow a recipe. However, after 12 years of working with this
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| DRY GROUT |
Many professional mosaic artists use grey grout, exclusively. Grout is usually approximately 2 shades darker when it's wet than after it has dried. The color patch affixed to boxes of grout is accurate most of the time, but not always. At last count, my basement workroom contained 18 boxes of different shades and brands of brown grout. I mix these up in varying ratios to try to customize my colors.
Work Area Preparation
Pique Assiette mosaic is a fun but messy craft. A basement area works great as a work-room, but if that's not possible, try to at least set up in an area that is not carpeted. For this project, your back yard, deck, or patio is idea, weather permitting. A large kitchen garbage container, preferably with a flip-top lid, is essential. Cutting china and glass will result in small glass splinters and shards falling on the floor around your work area, creating a hazard for small children and pets, so I recommend placing dishes inside plastic bags while cutting them into pieces. Always wear goggles when cutting shards with tile nippers. Avoid inhaling grout or mortar dust, and use a dust-protection mask when mixing powders. The Search: Were to Find Broken Dishes and Treasures Finding the raw materials for mosaics can be a full-time adventure. Think of your shards as your paint, and you'll be able to focus more clearly when you hit the junk market. Do an inventory of which colors you love the most, and which types of china or pottery best reflect the colors you love. For me, it's always American Art Pottery, or what some people call the "muddy" or "vintage" colors. These dishes have a texture, glaze and hue that I cannot find in any other shard, and they attract my eye quickly when I'm on my junk quest |
| Rubedeau Antiques, Palo, Iowa |
If you love patterned china, you're in luck, because there are millions of pieces of damaged floral cups, bowls, and plates on the market. Antique shops, flea markets, tag sales, garage sales, and internet sites are just the beginning. If you have a Goodwill store or Salvation Army in your area, stop in often to see what's available. And once friends and relatives find out what you're up to, they'll be on the look-out as well.
Many women have at least one broken dish in a bottom drawer someplace that they can't bear to part with--a wedding gift or piece of every-day family china--and the possibility of incorporating these broken dishes into a work of art is always exciting to them. I often find small sacks of broken dishes on my front porch, left there by friends who want something useful to do with these broken dishes. It's comforting to people when they find a creative use for something that's been relegated to the junk pile.
I love old antique shops that are dirty, dusty and wonderful. This is where you'll find REAL treasures, things that absolutely nobody wants --- chipped china, glued-back-together Hull Vases that are way beyond restoration, and other cast-offs.
Textures and Crazing Look for dishes that have interesting surfaces, such as the circular textured lines blended into the surface of some round bowls and plates. Bottom rims are beautiful when cut into small pieces, as are decorative patterns formed onto to some pottery dishes. McCoy has a lot of these textured pieces, check out their old planters, sometimes found for as little as $1.00 due to crazing. What's bad for them is good for us, because crazing, that crackly pattern that appears on some dishes over time, adds a rich visual component to mosaic designs. It is possible to advance the weathering process of shards
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| Homer Laughlin |
Finding mosaic materials, flowers, and antique dishes on E-Bay Here's an effective technique for finding exactly what you want: While shopping for antiques, check the bottom of a favorite dish in order to determine the manufacturer. With this information, you can head back to your home computer, type this name into a search on E-bay, with the words "chipped, crazed, cracked or broken" in the description field. You can fine-tune your search with the options available on the E-bay site, requesting that an e-mail sent to you whenever an item of this type comes up. Of course, these damaged goods are often dirt-cheap, and there's no need to waste money on shipping insurance. Every single day you're likely to get e-mails for chipped or broken pieces in your favorite colors or
patterns. You can also place an "item wanted" notice on E-bay, a newer feature of that site
which I've had some success with.
Finding Shards Buried at Old Pottery Factories You might also check out your local historical society to see if there was ever a pottery
factory in your area. If so, there are bound to be pottery "burial grounds" nearby, where
you can search for old shards (with the permission of the owner of the property, of course).
Red Wing, Minnesota has a popular burial area near the river that holds thousands of
shards from the old Red Wing Pottery factory. Creeks that run through older
neighborhoods often contain shards from old dishes; I've gotten some wonderful shards
from neighborhood children who've come across these pieces in their explorations.
Shopping at Habitat for Humanity for Mosaic Supplies Check to see if there is a Habitat for Humanity Re-Store in your area, or similar resource. The one in my town is an invaluable source for tile, interesting architectural objects, grout, mortar, mirrors, and paint, all of which are priced at a fraction of the cost at hardware stores. Some hardware stores send tons of grout to our Restore simply because the manufacturer has discontinued the line for a grout with an updated name.
Cutting China with Tile Nippers
Note: Always wear protective goggles when cutting shards. Nipping shards inside small plastic bags provides additional protection from flying shard bits.Cutting up dishes with tile nippers is not difficult, but it does take practice, and there are a few tricks to it. The key is proper placement of the cutting part of the nippers. You should go in just about to .5 of the way from the edge of the dish you are cutting. This will usually allow a clean cut, and less muscle power. If you go too far in with the nippers, the dish will be harder to cut, and is likely to shatter in unpredictable ways. Proper cutting will give you some control of your shapes, and with practice, many types of china will be as easy to cut as paper. Homer Laughlin is the easiest I've found for this.I could spend all day cutting around the flowers that run around the border
s of Homer Laughlin plates. You'll often see instructions that advise you to cut your shards into similar sizes. This is advice I never follow, because I love the look of a variety of shapes, sizes and textures. It seems to me that this is what sets Pique Assiette mosaic apart from other types of mosaic. Plates: Place plate in plastic shopping bag, I double or triple mine just to be safe. Cut plates by nipping in to the edge of the plate, at a slight angle. This will give you a long edge piece, which can be used as-is, or nipped down into smaller rim pieces. If you have difficulty getting a cut, turn the plate over and go at it from the underside. The book "Bits and Pieces" contains instructions for removing the rim from the undersides of plates, but I have never mastered this particular skill. I find it easier to trim the edge away from the rim, and discard the bottom rim piece. Patterns: Many mosaic artists cut floral designs and then place them back together in their design. This can be a very attractive design technique. However, I like the look of a design where these pieces are put together in a design differently than they appeared on the original dish.
Experiment with both methods, to see which one appeals to you. If you definitely want to keep a pattern intact, apply masking tape over the design, and on the underside as well, and then nip around that area.
Preparing, Cutting and Using Capodimonte Flowers and other Sculptural Pieces: If you're interested in using Capodimonte flowers, such as the ones I've used in most of my large projects, there are a few safety precautions you'll need to observe. These flowers are as sharp as they are beautiful, and even a small cut on your hands from one of these can really ruin your day. Not only can the petals have sharp edges, the undersides of them often have small sharp points that are difficult to see - until you cut your hand on one of them. The best rule of thumb is to always where heavy gloves when handling them, until you can get them broken apart and the edges ground down
with either a file or Dremel.
To break a large piece, such as a basket of flowers or multi-flowered candle holders, place the piece in several layers of plastic grocery bags. Turn the piece sideways, and place on a cushion such as an old towel or pillow to protect the flowers, and then tap the side of the bottom lightly with a heavy hammer until you feel the piece come apart. T hen, remove the pieces from the sack, and look at what you've got. Discard the sack of the shattered remains of the bottom, and use another batch of sacks if you find it necessary to repeat the process. You may have to do more hammering to get the
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| Capodimonte Candy Jar Lid |
Remove cup handles by nipping down from the edge. You can trim the base part of the cup more if your piece is too big. Don't be surprised if you cup handle doesn't survive the cut. Even with practice, my cup handles only stay intact about 50 percent of the time.
Bottoms of dishes Always check the bottoms of your dishes for interesting back-stamps. These add interest to mosaics and are intriguing to viewers, especially if the make of the dish has meaning. I love the raised letters on Shawnee and McCoy dishes, and the logo found on Homer Laughlin plates.
Very large heavy dishes I love Red Wing dishes, especially the Village Green line. Occasionally I'll find a huge thick casserole dish, these are blue/green on the inside and brown on the outside. For a piece this size, I insert them in tripled shopping bags, cover with old blankets or towels, place upside down (outdoors is best for this) and bang on the bottom of the dish with a hammer. New dishes I don't like to use new dishes for my mosaics; they are difficult to cut, and often the top glaze chips off during cutting. But sometimes I have to use new dishes if certain colors can't be found in old dishes. Red is difficult to find in antique shops, and the chance of finding good red dishes that are damaged to the point of being useful for our purpose are slim. I buy new red dishes at places like Target, the after-Christmas or Valentine's day sales offer a bonanza in pinks, whites and reds.
Very thin dishes Tea-cups and saucers can be so thin that the nippers will not close on them. If this happens, try wrapping the dish in paper-towels, and nipping through those.
Reminder: Don't place your nippers too far in from the edge of dishes in order to complete a clean, easy cut.
Mosaic Shovel Step-by-Step Instructions
For this project, we won't be covering the handle; it can be enhanced by using a clear varnish or glaze on the wood part, or even painting it with a corresponding color from the sharded part of the shovel. I like to use antique shovels; in the Midwest it's common to find them for $2 to $5 in old antique shops. If you can't find one of these, or if you want to start with a smaller shovel, purchase a "utility" shovel from the gardening section of any |
| Step A: Collect Shards and other pieces for general idea of design. Seal or avoid pieces that may be damaged by moisture. |
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| Step B: Apply mortar to part of shovel, you'll press the shards into this mortar. As mortar squeezes up between shards, be sure to wipe from tops of shards before it dries. |
If you've found and mastered the cutting of a Capodimonte flower as in the section about cutting shards, this is an excellent place to use one of those. Other found objects can be added to the shovel: Coins, small rusty tools, typewriter keys, jewelry pieces, mirror pieces, even beads and pearls can be used. On this one, I've used an old pocket watch - I'll seal that well with varnish before I grout it so that no moisture seeps under the crystal. I'll remove the varnish after the shovel is grouted and dry, so that the watch doesn't look "treated". Round objects stick with mortar better then they do with mastic, but if you do have problems with these falling off when the grout is dry, just glue them back in with epoxy, right in the place where they came un-stuck.
Continue applying mortar to shovel, pressing your shards and other objects into the mortar. Some artists prefer to plan their design in advance, but it's more fun to make it up as you go along, letting the shards and the shovel direct your work. I like to border the edges of my shovels with plate rims, or "tiny tile" from Mosaic Basics, for a more finished look.
Let shovel sit for at least 12 hours.
Note: It is not absolutely necessary to grout the shovel; some artists prefer the more rugged look of a mosaic that's just left "as-is". However, I've grown used to the finished look the grout lends to a mosaic, so I usually do grout my pieces.
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| Step C: Continue adding shards and objects to mortar. |
Preparing Grout for Use on Mosaic, How to Grout Mosaics
Illogical as it sounds, sanded grout requires much less water than non-sanded grout. For the projects in this book, start with two cups of sanded grout. Reserve about 2 tablespoons of dried grout for later repair work, if needed; you'll want to do that with grout from the same batch used on your mosaic, so that the color is the same (grout batches vary slightly in color).Stir in water or additive by the tablespoon, stirring as you add liquid, until it reaches the consistency of thick mud or cookie dough. A fork should stand up by itself in the mixture when mixed correctly. Make sure
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| Step C: Finish applying shards |
from the bottom of the bowl is mixed up into the mixture. An old metal fork is efficient for this task, the mixture will be so thick that plastic forks often break during the stirring. Never have grout too watery; even sanded grout will develop cracks if there's too much moisture in it. You'll know for sure that you've added too much water if there is a shimmery film on the surface of your mixture after it slakes. If this happens, add a small amount of grout. Once the correct consistency has been reached, the grout needs to sit ("slake") for 5 minutes. This mixture will stay workable for one hour at the most.
At any time during grouting, if you feel the mixture is
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| Step D: Apply Grout over top of shards, avoid flowers if possible |
too dry, DO NOT ADD MORE WATER. Adding more water will not help the mixture, the chemical reaction has already occurred during the slaking process, so adding more water at this point will only add more damaging moisture. Frequent stirring of the mixture and lightly covering your bowl with aluminum foil during the grouting process will keep it pliable enough for you to finish a small project; for larger projects, you'll want to mix several small batches during the process as you go.
Pour the grout on your mosaic, covering everything except those objects that absolutely need to be avoided, such as lacy earrings or other jewelry pieces. Just
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| Step D: Wipe grout back from shards, spray lightly with water if grout is drying too quickly |
fact that you are going to have to wipe what is basically thick mud off of everything. If it looks like it could be trouble, avoid it. Any porous objects or pearls should be coated with varnish and left to dry before you start the grouting process. The coating on old pearls will wipe off with grout, and leave you with transparent pearls, which are not as pretty as the original pieces. Wearing your gloves, push the grout into all of the crevices.
Some mosaic artists will let the grout sit on the mosaic for several minutes; I don't do that. I begin wiping the grout off with my Viva paper towels, you can dampen them a little bit but NOT MUCH! Some people prefer scraping back the grout with a craft stick: Try this and you may find it works better for you. Spray the mosaic VERY LIGHTLY if needed, if the grout is getting too dry too fast. When most of the grout is wiped off, I usually switch to one of my cheap old terrycloth wash cloths,
LIGHTLY dampened...
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| Example of finished shovel. (This is a different shovel than shown above, since I neglected to get a good photo of the finished piece in the steps above) |
Take a good look at your piece from all angles. Nothing screams "amateur" like missed crevices, and these crevices can cause weakening in other grout lines near the missed spot. Small crevices and textures can be further cleaned with toothpicks. At the point where you think you have the grout cleaned off, look again - you probably have a ways to go. It's important to get as much grout off now as you can, because as I advised in the materials section, it's tough to get dried grout chipped off with a nail when it's dry.
When you are finished, cover the piece lightly with a sheet of aluminum foil, and then lay a garbage bag and/or dry towel over that, and store it in a cool, damp area. Let it dry like this for several days, checking on it often and doing further cleaning. If there is cracking at this point, try to smooth it out or patch it with your reserved patch-kit grout. You want this to dry as slowly as possible.
After several days, you can uncover your mosaic, and clean with a mixture of vinegar and water, the same mixture you might use for cleaning windows. Grind down any sharp edges with a file or Dremel.
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Additional Resources
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| Find my instructions for creating a sea-shell- covered bird bath in Nature's Garden Magazine, a Better Homes and Gardens Specialty Publications, which contains easy, PROFESSIONALLY done photographs! |
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