The best way I know to hopefully save your pattern is to nip the plates with nippers (the best being Lipponit) . You kind of cut across the plate at an angle not approaching the piece too closely that you want to save and then carefully work it down by nipping closer and closer around your design. If you're still at the caveman hammer stage, don't worry too much about breaking the birds. It's a mosaic after all, and even using the nipping, we've all broken a nice piece. There's a good article about nipping somewhere that I've tried to find in my files, but haven't yet. Maybe someone else has it and will find it before I do for you.

I'm sure the members here will say to use a saw to detach the ears from a cup. Because I don't have a saw of that kind, I usually use my own personal cavewoman approach of trying a screwdriver and hammer to detach things. But that probably won't work when the ears are attached in two places like on a cup.

Don't be too afraid of sometimes doing a piece where you (what I call) "swing" the pieces up at angles. It can be quite fun for some projects, and is useful for those curved pieces you're working with. Here's a bird house I did "swinging" the pieces.

Good luck! I'll be interested to others' inputs!

As far as the cups go I think you must have a tile saw. Mine works great for cutting cups in half.

I use wheeled nippers and cut beside each handle. They usually come off good, to cut them in half precisely, use a tile saw.

Woo Hoo! So there you have it from a real pro who's done lots of cups!

I've saved plenty of handles with just nipping, I also have a picture group somewhere showing how to save a focal...

found it in my photobucket albums

Great pics nice. I have used nippers and successfully cut many handles. I just takes practice and a little time. Pick some up at a thrift shop (cheapies) and practice.
I have a saw but have yet to use it. Maybe that will be my next project. Learan to use the saw!!

Thank you so much everyone! Daisy: Your birdhouse looks beautiful, very nicely done! I don't have a tile saw so I will try with nippers. Nicethyme: Your instructions are great, let's see if I can do something like that!
Thanks again everyone!

Yeah! I did it guys, with the wheeled nippers and it worked perfectly. Now I will be starting another BB which will be a face and it will have ears! Thanks again everyone!

Great pics nicethyme - very graphic.

I've also used a small angle grinder with a dry diamond blade. Ryobi model - 900watt, 10 000 rpm, 115mm blade. The grider and blades are not expensive, but it's more difficult to control than a tile saw, which is a lot more expensive.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mosaic Equipment