First I'll explain how I did it (pics included). I came up with a bit of the design only and I'm not really sure what will come next. Kinda exciting, really.

Drew the design then colored it in with tiles/broken plates. Kinda like a coloring book. I then perforated around the design, stuck the paper against the bench, used a marker to transfer the design creating a dot pattern, then I connected the dots. This is the method Michelangelo used when he painted the Sistine Chapel. Not that this will be anything near the Sistine Chapel - but borrowing techniques always helps.

I had covered the tiles with tape so they could all be moved together in their pattern, then mostly buttered them on the bench one by one. Some places I was able to spread the thinset on the bench then squoosh the tiles in.

One thing I learned is that a little thinset goes a heck of a long way. I think Ronnie mentioned that, and probably Slow but my brain doesn't remember that far back, but until you do it yourself you don't realize just how little thinset ya need to mix! I'm much more used to mixing up cement which never goes far enough.

So now for your pics!!! ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ann

Do you have to cut all the stained glass pieces or do they come already cut?

Ann, I can't wait to see how it progresses, either! lol

Slow, I LOVE your story. Have you ever seen the butter sculptures by the Tibetan monks? Long time ago there was an exhibition at I think the Asian Society in NYC and I went to see it. It was AMAZING!! I really want to do something colorful like that. I'm putting a link below.

Carolann, I cut all the pieces. It is a fiddley job and getting thinset on some of the smaller pieces is a pain. lol But I'm having FUN!

WOW!! I get dawg snot thrown at me!! Now I am excited!! Must be doing something right! LOL

I bet you are really enjoying yourself so keep us posted with more pix along the way. Really inspiring!!!

I don't have a mosaic store near where I live so I'm now in the process of ordering some very colorful tiles from... AMERICA, cuz it comes out that I can get tiles from America for half the price I can here - and that includes shipping!! Can you believe that? Well, I can cuz everything here in Oz is super expensive. Gas is now $6 a gallon.

I haven't done any more mosaicing today but I've been drawing out designs and working that out.

Carol - I transfer the design cuz I'm not working with mesh. I think you saw that little piece of mesh in one of the pics but that's all I have. Not much use when ya're doing an entire bench ;-)

Glad you're enjoying the butter sculptures.

I'm really happy that ya'll enjoying what I'm doing. You all inspire me so much and it feels good to give a bit of that back!

Anyway, this is as far as I've gotten to. Put in my lotus flower and started the peacock. Making the peacock was TERRIBLE!! Lots of little pieces - made me think of Jane.

HEY JANE!!! Where's your peacock?? I'd LOVE an update. Went looking for it and... YOU NAUGHTY GIRL - you've deleted the pics!! Really wanted to steal some ideas off of you. HAHA

May be a couple of days before I get more done. Still trying to figure out what else I'll do. Have a lot of ideas (funny how they keep coming once you get in 'the groove') but have yet to figure out how to execute them.
ENJOY!

Yes, Texas is a wonderful place to live, we just moved away 9 years ago but lived in Austin, Houston, College Station, Georgetown and so miss the people!! The friendliest in the world.

Keep us posted on the bench's progress. We can't wait to see it completed.

Jane, you're not mosaicing/goging/leadlighting for a FEW days?? What happened???!!! Don't you have a garden art show coming up in a couple of weeks? Get busy, lady!! The world is anxiously awaiting CJ originals!!

Merm, I haven't been mosaicing long at all. A few ceramic animals, 4 pots, now the bench. But I'm a concrete addict and make paths like CRAZY!! No hypatuffa or however you spell it which is weird cuz I do love the stuff!

waiting with baited breath for the next installment (BTW, in winter no one notices the weeds, so I say let'em go till spring! LOL)

Pat

WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!
I agree with everyone else here. This is BEYOND beautiful!!!
IT is so much fun seeing you bring your bench to life!! The flowers and lotus look lifelike and so fantabulous!!!

Can't wait to see the next pix!!! Stop that weeding!! LOL!! WE want you to finish the bench before winter!!!

Whereever are you going to put your bench when completed?? Some place of honor and maybe with chains so someone doesn't try to steal it out from under you (sorry couldn't resist that) and then put on Ebay

Did I say this is and will be a real work of art!!

Thanks for sharing
Bebob

What a great way to wake up in the morn!! Seeing all those sweet posts, knowing that ya'll are enjoying seeing what I'm doing. Gosh, ya'll make me feel soooo goooood!!!!!

Pat, I looked at bebob's post about the wire mesh, don't know if you'll see that entry, and I feel like such an goofball!! ROFL I don't then smoosh the tile into thinset, I remove each piece, thinset that, then place it on the bench. I've thought about smooshing the taped piece into thinset but refrained because the thinset would then become my grout and I want to have colored thinset - and I haven't decided on grout color though it will most probably be a dark blue... I'm leaning away from charcoal or black. So if I were to smoosh a taped section into the thingset, is there a way to still be able to grout afterwards? I mean if I haven't added a colorant to the thinset already.

And I have to weed cuz I need to plant my BULBS!!! It's that time of year for me. ;-)

Rich soil? Ahhh, I envy you that! I neglected the garden for most of the summer b/c of my bathroom reno so there's much to do out there!

LOL The sad thing is that since I last posted it's mostly been raining, freezing, the most horrible weather and all I can do is look out the window and wonder when the sun will come out!! Housework is the last thing on my mind.

I did manage to do some mosaicing in between rain showers (for like 2 hours in total) and today was finally sunny until about 3 when it quickly became too cold to stay out there. I couldn't move my hands anymore.

So here's the current pic of the mosaic bench. Have no idea when I'll be able to work on it again cuz rain is in the forecast for the next several days.

Hope you like.....

That is simply divine, fantastic, lovely, gorgeous, and on and on. Great perfect job. I love it and you must be so proud,...!!!
HOpe it clears up soon, i want my next installament picture!!!!

The bench is just awesome!

I can't wait to see the finished product.

Daisy that is sooo sweet of you to say! One update pic coming up! Hope you like.....

I'll be making a paisley design on the seat, maybe the arms, too. I really haven't gotten that far with my design ideas to think about what I'll do on the arms. I'm starting to formulate ideas for the 'skirt' of the bench but don't have any concrete ideas, yet.

Slow, when it got too cold yesterday to kneel still (that sounds weird but I can't 'sit still' when I mosaic, got to kneel) while working on the bench I decided to finish Merlin Way, the path that leads to this area. Brick work is much more energetic and gets the blood pumping.
Here's a pic of Merlin Way. Now I just gotta grout it then make the sign!

Be Safe, Rach

And your garden pathways.. oh how I want to do something like that. Do you have access to a big bunch of bricks?? Your's look timeless and so inviting.

way to go girl. keep those pix coming. when you are done with those projects, you should post an open house on the forum and we can all come and look at everything Oh please..

Crack, the 'ribbon' says AUM. In devanagari script the '3' makes the 'a' sound, the swirly attached to the side makes the 'oo' sound, and over that would be a line but I used a half moon, and the dot over the line is the 'mmm' sound. A swami in India taught me that. Most people pronounce it OM but that's wrong, it's actually 3 sounds A-U-M. And that's your Sanskrit lesson for the day! hehe

Merm - 2 years ago Jane scored a ton of bricks for next to nothing and I was sooo jealous (not really) that I HAD to have some of my own. So on ebay I found an excellent bargain and actually won the bid scoring about 3,000 bricks at a little more than 3 cents a brick. I've made raised veg beds and these paths with them and still have quit a few bricks left. Where the bench sits is actually a small area of my garden - only around 26' by 164' to the side and back of my house. I have 3/8ths of an acre of land so there's still a heck of a lot of space left to play. But this area is my secret garden so it gets the most attention. At least it will be a secret garden once the hedging plants grow enough to actually be a hedge. ;-)

OK, I don't know if you all you guys are aware, but February we had really bad fires here and I was running away like twice a week for several weeks.

If you want to read about my horrid experience go here.

Since then I've been like a crazy lady clearing all the long grass, dead bushes, and weeds from my property; keeping my property safe from fires has become my priority.

BUT, I finally started work on my bench again today!! It got too dark to take pics but after I work on it some more tomorrow I will post pics so you can see how far (or how not far, hehe) I progressed.

So you can see that I have not been totally idle when it comes to mosaicing, here are a couple of pots I've done. I don't think I posted them here; I know I did on GJ.

Enjoy!
Cait

OK, I said I'd add an updated pic today so here it is:

I'm having my doubts about the sunflower plates I'm using. Looks awfully busy and there doesn't look to be enough contrast. My plate stash is pitiful so I may go shopping for colorful tiles that may help this bench to POP a bit.

Enjoy!
Cait

Kathy