{"id":1161,"date":"2010-01-11T13:24:55","date_gmt":"2010-01-11T20:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/?p=1161"},"modified":"2025-05-23T14:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T21:43:10","slug":"a-new-pique-assiette-mirror-or-the-beach-pottery-shard-experiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/a-new-pique-assiette-mirror-or-the-beach-pottery-shard-experiment","title":{"rendered":"A New Pique Assiette Mirror or The Beach Pottery Shard Experiment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Beach
\nMy latest student has a dream of creating a mirror with four special tiles and a huge collection of beach pottery shards that she has been collecting for years. When I saw the tiles and her collection of beach pottery I knew instantly that the shards and tiles were meant to be together. But it left me with a problem to solve. I have always avoided using beach pottery shards for mosaic because I was afraid of how grout would react with them. A year ago, I’d seen another mosaic artist use it on a vase and she had reported no problems with it. But I knew I had to try it out for myself. It was time for me to experiment on a small mirror.<\/p>\n

\"Laying<\/p>\n

Luckily I had been given someone’s entire collection of beach glass and pottery shards over a year ago and added it to my own collection. All those lovely worn, wave-washed pottery shards had been waiting in the greenhouse for this day.<\/p>\n

Beach pottery shards feel smooth under your fingertips, their surfaces ground by waves and rocks. Unlike the shiny, grout-repelling porcelain surface you have on new dishes you now have a matte surface, worn and pitted. I wondered if the grout grittiness would ruin the surface and if the colorant in the grout would mar and color the surfaces and sink into the pits. I also wondered if I’d like the matte surface against the grout when I was so used to the jewel-like mixture of dull grout setting off shiny bits and pieces. Well, the only thing to do was try it.<\/p>\n

\"Laying<\/p>\n

Deciding on a random design, I started applying the pieces as they fit. I wanted to avoid having to cut the shards and preserve the smooth edges that they already had.<\/p>\n

\"Laying<\/p>\n

After spending a few hours listening to music and getting lost in the meditative world of fitting shards I was soon near the end and pretty happy with the result. I’d taken quite a few breaks, something I always recommend to my students, to stretch and move. It’s so easy to get caught up and give your self a nasty back spasm from being in the same position for too long lost in your work.<\/p>\n

\"Mirror<\/p>\n

I left it all overnight to allow the mastic to set and harden. Tomorrow would be the test. I must admit to some trepidation. I loved the surfaces on some of the shards so much that I was loath to lose them if the experiment failed.<\/p>\n

\"Mirror<\/p>\n

Next day, I mixed up the grout. After a little consideration, I’d chosen a colored grout that coincidentally evoked sandy beaches called Summer Tan. I needed to find out if the grout colorant would be a problem. And if it was a problem, at least this color, which was a bit rusty would at least blend in with the rustiness of some of the shards if it did sink into the pits on the surface.<\/p>\n

\"Mirror<\/p>\n

And the final result? Well, I must admit, it was a little harder to clean off the grout. The matte surfaces held onto the grout and developed a cement sheen that had to be rubbed off and even sponged. I hardly ever use a sponge, preferring instead to only clean with old cotton socks. Oh yes, there is a use for all those old cotton socks with big holes in the heels!<\/p>\n

I loved the final look! This surface felt old and worn still and so smooth to the touch. It all looked antique and I wished in the end that I’d used an old worn mirror too. Ah well. Experiment done. I was glad though that I’d used the rusty colored grout, because where it did stay in the pits on the surface it looked natural.<\/p>\n

\"Mirror<\/p>\n

Conclusion: yes it’ll look good and yes it will be a bit more work.. but all very well worth it. And next week we’ll use these results to help my student create her dream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My latest student has a dream of creating a mirror with four special tiles and a huge collection of beach pottery shards that she has been collecting for years. When I saw the tiles and her collection of beach pottery I knew instantly that the shards and tiles were meant to be together. But it Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[854,1180,1,3],"tags":[502,500,501,1183,1198,404],"class_list":["post-1161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beach-pottery-mosaics","category-home-decor","category-musings","category-mosaics","tag-a-mosaic-experiment","tag-beach-pottery-shards","tag-grout-on-beach-shards-in-mosaic","tag-home-decor","tag-home-decor-mosaic-mirror","tag-pique-assiette-mosaic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1161"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6411,"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1161\/revisions\/6411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summerhouseart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}