Selep Imaging Blog: Mosaic Butterfly Garden Chair

Image 1: Mosaic Butterfly Chair Center

A US Midwestern summer includes enjoying gardens and yards, so today's post spotlights a garden chair I up-cycled with mosaics. I have my share of mosaic stepping stones, so creating the mosaic on a chair seat yielded a much more versatile and useful decorative object!

Mosaic Butterfly Chair seat by Jeanne Selep

Image 2: Mosaic Butterfly Chair seat

Besides being an actual chair (!), it's great have a level surface to set tools, or my camera, or beverages on when I'm outside. It's also nice to sit on when taking a break from planting and weeding. Amazingly, I have actually sat on the chair while eating outside with my 20-something children in sight of the flowers! (and weeds).

Image 3: Garden setting, with flowering hydrangea tree!

The chair is part of a vintage (and rusty) outdoor table and chair set I purchased in Door County. The chair is actually is a folding chair, but I don't use it that way, and I leave it out all winter (Click here for my winter garden photos). I up-cycled the table first. Since I am trying a variety of mosaic techniques, I am not making this set match at all. The unifying theme is picassiette mosaic.

(Mosiac work using broken china is sometimes called Pique Assiette, or picassiette.)

Image 4: Up-cycled vintage Mosaic Butterfly Chair

The table and chair set included the mosaic table below, detailed in the post here.

Upcycled Garden Mosaic Table

Mosaic Garden Table Top

Mosaic Notes: Trying to flex my mosaics and design skills, in this chair I mixed small vintage tiles, contemporary and vintage china, and a central element from a novelty butterfly plate. I used multiple borders and triangular piecing. I loosely coordinated the butterfly's colors and added in additional colors, including cobalt and an inspiring periwinkle blue plate that I really wanted to use because the color was just so lovely. (Periwinkle is a lavender tinted blue, the photos don't necessarily capture the color). LOL, half the reason the chair exists was to use that plate!

Image 5: Mosaic Butterfly with Curved Border Detail

Project Notes: Reflecting on the results of achieved when a project is completed, I try to answer these 3 questions.

1. What went well,
2. What could have gone better, and
3. What would I do differently if I could re-do it.

Applying these questions to my chair, I saw I definitely improved and am happy with the results. Here are my thoughts:

What went well:
I got to use the center of a lovely resale butterfly plate!
I used vintage tiles and other beautiful materials.
I used and was more adept at triangular piecing.
I used multiple border elements and lined them up better than I did in a previous project (the table from this set, shown below, for example).
I got to use an unusual color palette that makes me smile including periwinkle, cobalt and light blues inspired by the center butterfly plate.
I'm happy with the materials used - clear silicon caulk, sanded grout, grout sealer.
The project was fast, and finished!

What could have gone better:
The chair really is too rusty for my taste.

What would I do differently if I could have a do-over?
I might have removed rust and used rust preventive paint.

Answering these questions for completed projects is something I encourage people to contemplate. Skills are improved by practice and reflection!

Image 7: Mosaic table and chair in garden

Garden Notes: I created this raised bed garden during the pandemic, with all plants and the tree, in what was plain lawn. The small tree is a flowering Hydrangea tree and is already significantly bigger than when I planted it!

"If you have a garden and a library,
you have everything you need."

- Cicero

Image 8: Mosaic table and chair in garden with flowering Hydrangea tree

"Gardeners, I think,
dream bigger dreams
than emperors."

- Mary Cantwell

Click on the images to see them enlarged. Leave a comment if you have the time, they brighten my day!

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