MOSAIC URN.

This is the latest project that D has started and it's going to take some time. The tiles for the black swirls are tiny and he needs hundreds of them.




Here is the start of it, with the larger tiles in copper mirror in a single fluid line on either side of the urn. To break up the black swirls, we decided some ordinary mirror tiles will accentuate the design.
I'll do some updates as this progresses.

Meanwhile, it's gung-ho in the garden again as we've had regular rain and sun. The black fly have appeared in their hordes and settled on the apricot and nectarine tree trunks. Now if only I could encourage the chameleons over there they could have a banquet - a real good blow out, so much so they'd probably fall off the tree!

CAT MOSAIC POT.

Here is the recently-finished pot for our friend - a real girlie-girl, hence the pinks, lavendar and blue colours. The grout was a bit of a problem so in keeping with the colour theme, we used white with a blue dye. El jefe prefers doing abstract designs and found the cat extremely difficult. I've looked at many mosaics featuring animals and although they are good representations of the animal, it seems difficult to capture their individuality.

This pot is dedicated to Dermot (Dermy) a Burman, who has a shout like no other. He's getting old now and weak on his back legs but he lives in the lap of luxury with his own room, all his toys around him, steps up to the bed and we all hope he lives to an ever riper old age.....he is such a character.



VIVA DERMY.

SUNNY SPANISH SCENE:


As we sat there drinking coffee at the end of a strenuous couple of hours filling the wall and planting, I thought this scene looked cosy. The urn in the foreground is waiting to be mosaiced in black and copper but it will have to wait a while as el jefe has another, more important one to finish off for friends.
And here are the fruits of our labours - he decided to fix a few coloured tiles on the back of the wall to cheer it up. Gonzalo had a spare Moscatel vine for us, so appeared with his mattock, whacked a great hole behind the wall, shoved in the vine and now we don't know how we're going to train it and where when it'll go when it gets on the move.

VIVERO EL LAGO, NEAR ROTA:




This is near the US Base north of Puerta de Sta. Maria and we were on the hunt for an unusual pot for mosaicing. Yes, we said "no more big ones" but pensionistos are allowed to change their mind. El jefe has plans for black with copper mirror lines snaking through. He's abandoned his plan, temporarily, to make his own sculpture. Here it is....


During our last visit, about 18 months ago, they were excavating to create a lake and above is the finished project. A haven for ducks, birds and insects. A tranquil place to rest before browsing their large selection of trees and shrubs. Very reasonable prices.

I said earlier winter hadn't really arrived and to confirm that we saw storks on the nest and flamingos in the lagoons on the way there. Too warm here I suppose for them to make the journey south.

MORE GARDEN ART:

Here are a couple of aspects of the bamboo pot, with a black urn on top. D is just finishing off the paved area to put a bench on, as there's some shade there from a pear tree behind.

There's a whole hotch potch of shrubs and trees in this area - cypress, pampas grass, a false pepper tree and clumps of osteospurmum. I have a lovely pittisporum to go in later in the year behind the bench....just have to nurse it along in a big pot during the hot summer.

This will be the last big pot to be done - we almost gave ourselves hernias carrying this from the workshop!

D is already planning another project - to put a double wall on the edge of the path behind the palm tree, fill it with plants and have Mexican jugs dotted along the wall. We already have the jugs, bought in a moment of mad spending at one of our favourite shops, Casa del Mimbre. Here they are:

It's really too hot to be starting any building work now - this will be shelved until Autumn, when the ground is less like concrete.

GROUTED POT:

Here you can see the four facets of the pot, in different styles, freshly grouted in black. Yin has just given it her seal of approval. Mathilde has been keeping a close eye on the proceedings and has now wandered round with an antique pot with the request "mariposas por favor" - butterflies please. So, mariposas it will be. As regular readers will know, Mathilde is not a woman to be trifled with!

After that it will be a big cubed pot for a dear friend, who wants her cat on it. I'll leave that complicated bit to el supremo, while I do the other three sides in abstract, in different shades of blues and white with a splash of girly pink.

MOSAICED POT READY TO GROUT...

Four different sides, all on the theme of bamboo. Removable rim will be mosaiced with black tiles and then all grouted in black. Should look good when placed just off the garden path.

BAMBOO POT. Sunny days are back and el jefe has started his big, big pot. He is also building a little arbour at the back of the house, where there is the beginning of a grapevine.He has visions of sunning himself round there and reaching up to pick a grape.

NEW POT TO MOSAIC.

Am still having trouble uploading a picture direct from Picasa to my blog - some coded message keeps appearing. Many people are experiencing the same - I hope they fix it soon.

This is the new pot, with a removable rim, which will have butterflies round it. I think bamboo sprays, like the ones on the stone benches, will look very tasteful.

FOUNTAIN THINGY.

The mosaiced bricks can be moved around, and they will be as we want to put some large flat stones and pebbles around and a papyrus plant. Need to get the sound just right too, so a bit of twiddling is necessary....

CUBE POT FINISHED.

This has now had its black grout applied and I think it looks gorgeous. We shall paint the inside as it helps terracotta pots retain moisture.


This next one, using up bits 'n pieces with the odd coloured glass pebble, is a bit of a disappointment



because the tiles get lost in the red grout. We have been reading up on oil-based grout stains, so will find a black one and go over this pot after experimenting on a trial piece.












And for Colin's benefit on mediterraneangardening.blogspot, here's the same pot before the grout was cleaned off. See what I mean about the tiles disappearing and that black grout would have been much better.

The days are getting colder now so I think this might be the last bit of mosaic work until Spring. Ooo, will withdrawal symptoms set in!

Colin of mediterraneangarden blogspot suggested that the process of mosaicing be shown, so here's the virgin pot and subsequent steps: the lizards and salamanders were drawn on the pot. Ordinary ceramic bathroom tiles are cut up, made smaller with special tools, shaped with nibblers or a grindstone and fixed to the terracotta surface with glue.



The background is meant to look like a tiled wall

Later fronds of greenery were mosaiced around the rim.












Grouting was added, squidged in, scraped and sponged off.

We applied a brown one and when it was dry, it was like pale chocolate - not the effect we wanted. The finished pot was placed on a plinth in the middle of the new circular path...

There were two dead plum trees with strangely-shaped trunks when we first bought this place that we saved them for an unknown project. We drank our way through a few cartons of an Arcos de la Frontera wine in the beautiful blue bottle and that's how this little bit of whimsy sculpture was born! We added different coloured bottles and, thinking that Blue Sapphire gin had a pale blue bottle, we bought that (just for the bottle, you understand!).

We have a few dozen more bottles and hope to create a bottle wall some time, which will catch the setting sun.

Here is the maestro at work on another pot. 

CUBED POT.

Nearly finished. These shapes had to be exact for all four sides so templates were used and D. tried them on for size before sticking. The joins on the four corners will be a challenge. 

LATER......and if there's anyone out there reading this, you might like to see the three facets of the new cylindrical pot with the rose theme.
















A terracotta grout was used for the roses, then these were masked while either a black or a white grout were used on the rest.
In some areas, copper or silver mirror tiles were used. We are becoming very fond of these.
I particularly like this section with its lovely curved swirls.

What do you think? 

YET MORE GARDEN ART.
D calls this his gaudy pot...there are copper mirror tiles around the rim which reflect the surrounding greenery beautifully. Black and amber glass stones come next, then the rays, finishing with black tiles and glass beads.





This was a gorgeous Japanese pot, found in a Mexican furniture and sculpture store. The mosaic is copper and silver glass in a Japanese character.




The spiral mosaic for the cacti was a very early one. I always feel drunk looking at it, as it never seems to sit upright....an optical illusion - honest!

D feels an Art Deco mood coming on, so has bought a cylindrical and a cube pot to have a go. Watch this space.

 

SLABBED RECTANGULAR POT.

This was my first attempt and it only took me 2 years! Lots of things got in the way of completing it, but I finally made it this Spring before the garden needed attention. It's now on the steps near the new pergola.


This was done in one afternoon by D, who was using up odd bits, then it got added to with glass pebbles and proper tesserae.
The other two are early ones for fun and our neighbour was so interested, we gave the floral one to her for her new house.












This is a North American Indian design. What a lovely datura (Brugmansia) in the background.....we lost it in the 2004 very cold winter and haven't yet tried again with these gorgeous trees.  

MK 2 MOSAIC TABLE. Here is the finished set, and a close-up of the butterfly. Simple, elegant, don't you think?! Three different grouts used on the benches - dark green, red (which has come out a nice terracotta) and black.




This is an ordinary flower pot, with oddments, proper tesserae and glass pebbles to give a colourful effect, using chocolate brown grout.....nice.

I've forgotten the name of the rambling plant with pink daisy-like flowers in the background. I plonk it everywhere, water it in and it's off.....from time to time it needs a haircut so I put the trimmings in troughs and pots. Glossy leaves all the year round, drought resistant and hardy. Perfect for these conditions. 

MORE MOSAICS. This is the original mosaiced butterfly that D didn't like. We used ordinary bathroom tiles and bought 12 boxes of assorted colours. When we need different colours, unfortunately we bought thicker tiles by mistake and the effect is apparent when the grouting is finished: the surface is uneven and rough. Also, the benches were done in two-tone yellow bamboo design.....very simple, very effective.
So off came the butterfly and black/purple bamboo and a new design done and grouted. Next is the result. 

GARDEN ART.

You may be wondering what the lone pot is doing. Well, I started writing about garden art and our interest in mosaicing. Somehow it got onto another blog page www.verdesitio.blogspot.com. If you're interested you could visit that and then continue with salamanderverde in the hope that I've found my way out of this maze and into some continuity of posting! Ha, fat chance.

Here's a stone table mosaiced last year. D is not happy with it: inadvertently we bought more bathroom tiles which were thicker, thus creating an uneven surface on the table. He is going to rip off the brown and substitute red to make a smooth finish. Currently he is doing the semi-circular benches in a bamboo design so more pics of this if this post works......