mosacis...my first try

I've always been intimidated by mosaics. I have been hanging onto some broken fiesta ware dishes for a few years now and knew that I wanted to make a tray and trivet, but just haven't done it. Every time we move, my hubby questions my need to keep the broken dishes and says that this is the last move for them, I either need to make my project or get over them. I broke my first piece of our dishes when we were in our first apartment (oh that was a junky place!) so he has moved them 6 times now.

I gathered the dishes (too bad there wasn't any of the red or pink broken), the grout that the girl at out hardware store recommend for this particular project, a hammer, and my trivet and tray. My grandpa made both wooden pieces. One summer at a family reunion he was pushing them both pretty hard and I ended up with more than one of each. I love both. My grandpa is a very talented woodworker. If he was still making things, I'd get him set up on etsy! I am only fessing up to owning one large wooden tray and one small wooden tray. The large one sits on our counter and holds our fruit bowl. This small one sat on our coffee table until the kids couldn't leave it alone, now it sits on top of the fridge holding the treat basket and a yellow pitcher.



I worked outside so the mess was out there. It took many more pieces than I had thought it might. I made sure that I had more than enough ready before getting started with the grout.

The trivet was my practice piece. I did not glue the dish pieces down for this one and realized pretty quickly that it would have helped. I applied the grout and then sponge wiped it off the top of the dishes. It took many wipes to get them cleanish.

At this point, I let it dry more before messing with it anymore. Then I was able to more easily scrape and wipe the excess grout off.

For the tray, Bee and I worked together to glue the pieces in first. We just used elmers glue, since that's what I had on hand and I was over budget for this project anyway.

Here's the almost done trivet, it still needs the wood cleaned up a little better.

and the completed tray.