Jeanne Selep's Selep Imaging Blog: vintage

Showing posts with label vintage. Show all posts

Sunday, August 31, 2025

Fantasy Flowering Tree Mosiac

Trees and flowering trees appeal to me. So as a mosaic artist, I decided to create a stepping stone that combines multiple loves and interests - trees, flowering trees, chintz china, and mosaics.

Image 1: Flowering Tree Mosaic Stepping Stone

As I looked around for a mosaic project inspiration, I found brown mugs with dimensional bark, of all things. That mug needed to be broken! Whimsical, but dare I say, ugly? Maybe ugly is the wrong word, perhaps unique would be better. (Maybe OK for hobbits?) Let's just say using the mugs daily would be a strong choice.

Image 2: Mosaic Flowering Tree Detail

I also had a large circular stepping stone mold (18 inches in diameter) that I had purchased full price ($93) around 2008, and never used. It bothered my that years later I was making mosaics, wishing I had bigger stepping stones, and yet had never used my large mold.

With the help and encouragement of my concrete unafraid and unfazed mosaic artist friend, and after watching her encourage other friends to use concrete (concrete pumpkins, anyone?), I mixed the concrete (in her basement!), adding chicken wire in the middle of the concrete for support. I used the mold! (Which I then gave to her, but have used twice more since, making that mold cost only $31 each use.)

Image real 3: Mosaic Stepping Stone Detail

I also had many floral dishes I wanted to use. There is a style of china called chintz, which I love, that has inspired me in multiple mosaics. Using small bits of floral patterns mimics the chintz look. See bunny mosaic here.

Image 4: Flowering Tree Mosaic Stepping Stone

My Flowering Tree mosaic stepping stone No. 1 was the result. I hope you like it!

Unrelated, but... for our USA Labor Day holiday weekend, (Monday off, 3 day weekend!) we (the family and I) planned to grill out. But my area in Wisconsin, USA had flooding about 2 weeks ago. The extra water everywhere resulted in an exponential quantity of hungry mosquitos per acre. So we didn't grill out, we cooked inside and used the stove top and the oven, because we didn't want to be eaten alive while cooking our dinner, and I didn't want to use a ton of bug spray just to cook outside. First world problems, I know.

I hope you had a good weekend, and if in the USA, Holiday weekend!

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Totally skippable Notes (for those with more time):

Ah, blogging!. I photographed my stepping stone on the lawn, thinking the flowers in the grass would add to the spring like image. Instead, the grass photographs really dark and the lawn looks weedy. (I used photoshop to lighten the grass. So much work.) Do magazine photographers avoid using grass as a background? Do you have lots of color correction problems?

So then I took the photo on my front step against concrete, but my concrete is in terrible shape, snow and winter and salt having eroded the surface, and it's expensive to fix. (And not a priority, either. My travel budget would take a hit.) And guess what - I don't really enjoy concrete work! My Dad re-surfaced the concrete more than 15 years ago, but that has worn considerably.

A recent plumber fixed some plumbing for less than an hour and charged me $358. Given that, what do you think new steps, or concrete repair, will cost? I'm not getting a quote any time soon. (Still paying off the plumber...)

Mosaic Notes:

Mosiac work using broken china is sometimes called Pique Assiette, or picassiette. It's my favorite style, and the one I work in the most.

Mosaic 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 stepping stone:

What went well:
I used my large mold.
I made my own concrete stepping stone base.
I'm happy with the materials used - clear silicon caulk, sanded grout, grout sealer!

What could have gone better:
The project took so long. The results could be better.

What would I do differently if I could have a do-over?
I'll show you in another post.

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

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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Click here for an Incredible Mosaic Collection!

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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.