Jeanne Selep's Selep Imaging Blog: garden: art

Showing posts with label garden: art. Show all posts

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, August 31, 2024

Whimsical Mosaic Bench

Image 1: Detail of Mosaic Bench

I found a whimsical cat bench at a rummage sale several years ago. The quirky cat legs made the bench unique, and I snapped it up as a base for a quick mosaic project.

Image 2: Whimsical Mosaic Cat Bench

The bench was some kind of composite material, making it light in weight, a big bonus for me.

Image 3: Mosaic Bench Top

When starting to mosaic the top, I wanted to create a distinct border, so I used the red rim from some china plates and created the edge first. I wanted to experiment with a new color palette, and I wanted to use a fair amount of patterned china, and I'm showing you the finished bench. Sometimes I find myself making goals, executing them, and then I am left scratching my head the result.

Image 4: Mosaic Butterfly detail

I liked how the interior mosaic turned out. I got to use the fun butterfly piece (above), and I like the colorful "chinz" style. The red in some of the individual pieces was supposed to echo the red in the border; but the final result didn't work with the border as well as I thought it would. The interior ended up "reading" as sort of pastel, with a loud red border. Oh well....

Image 5: Mosaic detail

The bench works well outside and I use it as an outside table for gardening and as a miscellaneous horizontal surface. It's another picassiette mosaic project I've finished, and it has been useful. (Except the cat's definitely don't deter chipmunks or rabbits...)

Image 6: Mosaic Garden Bench

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Mosaic Notes: The term picassiette in mosaics (or pique assiette) indicates the main mosaic material is broken china. The word comes from pique assiette in French, meaning 'stolen from plate', but the french spelling and pronunciation has been shortened to picassiette by some English speaking artists.

Skills are improved by
practice and reflection!

Project Notes: I try to improve my skills by thinking about how a project turned out once completed. I use 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 this bench, I think I could improve it. Here are my thoughts:
What went well:
I got to up-cycle a funky inexpensive bench!
I used vintage china to create a picassiette mosaic.
I tried a new color palette.
I'm happy with the materials used - clear silicon caulk, sanded grout, grout sealer.
I finished the mosaic in a short time period.
The project was fast, and finished!

What could have gone better:
The impromptu color palette doesn't go as well with the border as I had hoped it would..
I did a sloppy job on the grout on the side.

What would I change in a do-over?
I might select a different border color. Or interior color. Or something.
I wouldn't have slopped grout all over the side.
I still could paint the grout to match the bench.

Answering these questions for completed projects is something I encourage people to try.

Image 7: Butterfly detail in Mosaic

Enjoy the end of Summer!

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 and comments months/years later are welcome!

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