Jeanne Selep's Selep Imaging Blog: ferns

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Monday, August 31, 2026

Butterfly Mosaic

Summer floated by gently, days fluttering into weeks as gatherings, events, and picnics flourished; now late evening sunsets are arriving earlier.

I'll remind myself of this summer with my latest mosaic project - a blue and white butterfly I finished in August.

Image 1: Mosaic butterfly Mosaic

I envisioned a butterfly "sculpture" that would float over my fern garden, (which is starting to fade as the summer heat dries it out.)

Blue White Mosaic butterfly by Jeanne Selep

Image 2: Mosaic butterfly Mosaic

I also tried out the butterfly over/in one of my hydrangea plants (below)...

Image 3: Blue and White Mosaic Butterfly

...but I like the butterfly flying over the ferns better.

Image 4: Butterfly Mosaic over my Ferns

Some of you may remember there used to be glass garden flowers in my fern garden. If you are wondering, I moved them to other parts of my yard, because the ferns looked so lush without them.

Image 5: Blue and White Mosaic Butterfly

Back to the mosaic: My up-cycled picassiette mosaic butterfly started with a metal wall butterfly decoration found at a rummage sale. I then covered the metal with mosaic pieces from blue and white vintage china. (Picassiette mosaics are mosaics made with pieces of china.)

The butterfly is about 16 inches (40cm) across and 11 inches (28cm) from top to bottom.

Image 6: Mosaic butterfly Mosaic

The butterfly itself is sturdy, but not too heavy. I attached the butterfly to a pole (with some difficulty!) I will see how the pole attachment holds up. If the squirrels start jumping on it from the bird feeder I expect there will be problems. The pole connection problem isn't really solved yet.

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I hope you have enjoyed
the long Summer days,
and I hope the rest of the year
is even better!

(Even if like me you are going to miss summer a little...)

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Click on the images to see them enlarged.

Comments encourage me, and I like encouragement. Please leave a comment if you have time!

I have three large categories of posts:
Travel, China and China hutches, and Mosaics.

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Click here for an Incredible Mosaic Collection!

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Here is a getting started with mosaics tutorial from Apple Street Cottage.

Saturday, January 23, 2021

Valentine Mosaic Ball

Mosaic Ball: View 1

I have a collection of bowling balls. How many people can say that?

Mosaic Ball: View 2

I don't even bowl. My collection of bowling balls are picassiette mosaic covered art objects.
(Picassiette, or the French "pique assiette", are mosaics made with broken bits of china.)

Mosaic Ball: Detail showing five red and white patterns

The colors for this mosaic ball were going to be black and white and red all over. (There are so many jokes that start that way...) But, alas, my red and white dishes "read" as pink. (That means the visual effect of the red and white appears pink from a distance instead of red)

Mosaic Bowling Ball and Bird Bath Base in Garden

When it became apparent that the red would not be prominent, I decided to embrace the pink effect and intentionally mix in pink.

Mosaic Ball Detail: Two styles of Pink and White china was used

I was able to use two contemporary orphaned pink dishes I loved.

Mosaic Ball: View 3

The six black and white patterned dishes used in making this ball came from contemporary china found in resale shops.
I was wondering why most black and white china is contemporary. Older vintage and antique china embraced color more. Perhaps our ancestors valued the bits of color during the long white and gray winters.

Mosaic Ball: View 4

Today, people see so many colors everywhere - in print and on-screen viewing, in fabrics and objects. My ancestors, and many historical cultures had a lot less color in their world, especially in harsh winter months in Northern climates. (We can't all be descendants of tropical people, or those that had colorful silks and dyes.) In long snowy winters, whites, grays, browns and blue (skies) would have predominated.

Mosaic Ball: View 5

I attended an art lecture where the speaker noted that black and white and gray were calming to city collectors in places like New York City, where the noise of the urban environment made people want to come home to neutral spaces. Maybe that is why styles changed to include more black and white, vs. the colorful china in the past.

Mosaic Bowling Ball and Bird Bath Base in Garden

Some notes: The birdbath base (above) is one of my earliest large projects, made more than a decade ago. It was sealed and has been outside since then, holding up surprisingly well.

I mentioned in this note here that I like to learn from my projects. Here is my tip from this project: DON'T use the concave and convex bends in china, or the thick sections from the bottom. I made a mosaic tip graphic below. It doesn't look as sleek as I would like, but it took a lot of time and at least my "mosaic tip" is done!

Click on the images to see them enlarged.

I blog for fun and my blog is ad free. Comments encourage me, and I sometimes need encouragement. Please leave a comment if you have time! Anonymous comments are allowed.

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