Just Another Wednesday in the Garage

Before Grouting

So while Hilda was working away on her gorgeous planter, I was poking around with mosaicking a small birdbath/pollinator watering hole for the backyard. Completing this little piece also contributed to the on-going and everlasting Clean-Out-The-Garage project by clearing off a small shelf. Win-win for me, and maybe even for the local wildlife. 

So far though, Luna is the only one who I've observed drinking from it. 

Wednesday is the Best Day

Not because the work week is almost over. But because it's Do Mosaics in the Garage Day, which means that every week has a holiday smack dab in the middle. 

And my friend Hilda is quite the adept. She only started in with mosaics a little more than a year ago, and now look:

Photo Courtesy of Hilda West

I can't claim that my garage is the most comfortable or attractive "studio" (nope, I'm not sharing photos of that workspace) but somehow we manage to create beautiful things there. Especially Hilda.

A Work in Progress

Some people are cleaning out the closets, but that doesn't spark any joy for me. Besides, where would I even store the stuff except back in the closets, given that Goodwill is closed? Instead, I've been heading out to the garage for a little mosaic work. I swear, by the time this lockdown is over, all my cactuses will be very well-housed.

So what's left to do? Well, just for the weather to warm up so that I can move the Staphelia gigantea into its new home.

On a Pedestal

Tiles ready for installation

It all started in ceramics class. Or maybe it all started with a mosaic flower pot which needed to stand a little taller. Or maybe it doesn't matter how it started, it was a silly idea, regardless.

But I designed and made, underglazed and glazed, these blue tiles to cover a 12" square cinder block (yup, a simple-pimple cinder block). I made a few extras, just in case. And then a few tiles actually did go missing. Disaster planning in action.






It didn't take long to tile the block, just a little patience to allow the first ones to set up before moving  on to the other sides. And grouting was pretty darn easy, too.

Installed

Installed & Grouted

And then it got a bit harder - which planter gets the privilege of the high seat? I had originally thought of the pedestal for the gold "Egyptian" planter. But the new blue and red one looks pretty good up there, too.

No doubt it will all come down to the lucky vegetable or plant that gets to live in either of the pots.

Just One More

It's been kinda chilly in the unheated and uninsulated garage these days. Meaning, it's been too, too, too freezing to have much desire to deal with grouting this last pot. Cold damp grout, sponges dipped into buckets of cold water - not very appealing at all.

But I put on my work shirt and work sweatshirt, then my heavy work sweatshirt, followed by my old fleece vest, finishing off with my work scarf. And my work apron. Then I got to work. And, as always when you finally face up to procrastination, it really wasn't so bad. Or at least it really didn't take as long as I imagined.

Can't say that I'm delighted with the results, though. It's fine, it's done, and as often happens with new projects, with time, I might just come to like it more.

Mosaic Cactus Bowl

The inspiration for this little "housing" project came from the new resident itself - this yellow and green cactus (Agave lophantha 'quadricolor') needs a new pot. Simple.

And it was pretty simple and straightforward. No fretting or stressing, and small enough (12" diameter) that it didn't take a lifetime to complete. My kinda project.

Just hope the cactus agrees.

Meanwhile, Back in the Garage...

Back in July, when I finished up one mosaic project, and before I could get distracted, I started working on finishing up another one. Yup, there is a surprising (discouraging?) amount of stuff that needs to be "finished up" in the garage.

You might even think that it's a big garage, but really, a modern-sized car would barely squeeze inside. It's just crowded. But then, I think most garages live quiet, cluttered lives.

Anyway, I constructed the form, once again starting with a ball covered in concrete, and went on from there. The resulting piece stands about 36" tall and helps keep inattentive guests from falling down the deck stairs. So I guess that you could say that it's useful. And it even is compatible with a little planter that I put together years ago. No doubt the garage was crowded then, too.

And remember, after Halloween comes Shopping Season Vote the Bums Out Day!

Gabe's Basketball

2016

Once upon a time ago, my friend Gabriel played basketball. And then he didn't. So when he and his family moved, there was this slightly spongy, spare basketball which came to my house. Well, the garage, actually.

Where it happily stayed for a looong time, until at last I covered it with concrete for a mosaic project. It was a good start, but that's all it was for another couple of years.

Until this summer, when it became clear that the only way to prevent the garage walls from bulging out and buckling was to finish up some of those semi-started projects. In truth, it probably would have been more efficient to simply throw them all away.

Audio books* to the rescue. For the past month, I have spent some part of most every day in the garage, listening to something good. It got pretty messy, the grouting part, not the listening part, but Gabe's basketball is now completely disguised.

And the work table is again available for the next garage-saving project.

2018

* Wolf Hall and/or Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

  Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

Everyone Could Use a Drink

Not for the birds. Not even for the bees, although they are certainly welcome. But for the butterflies. Yes, they too like an occasional drink, though I don't think they worry about whether it is Happy Hour or not.

First, make a fake rock by covering a chunk of styrofoam with hypertufa (thereby entombing some of that excess packing material that all too often arrives uninvited). The styrofoam interior means that a normal person can lift it and carry it around. If it were a solid piece of hypertufa, it would not be so easy to move about the yard. Rock dimensions: approximately 8" x 9" x 14".

Then, make a mosaic inside of a small saucer for a planter. Since it is small, it really doesn't take much time and you get to use up some of those little left over bits from other mosaic projects. And if you happen to have on hand a stash of, say, chopstick rests that you picked up, say, a few years ago (ahem, say like at least fifteen), then it is easy to embellish the little mosaic.

Finally, attach the mosaic saucer to the fake rock with thinset, fill with water and wait for your little friends to belly up to the bar.

The "Heads on Stakes" Project

Blame it on the drought. And the broken plates that Jean Doak passed my way. And the succulent cuttings that other gardeners shared with me. And, and, and...

So many have contributed to the creation of this project of ceramics figures, tiles, low-water plants, gravel and goofiness.

Now the narrow strip along the driveway no longer looks like an abandoned dirt pile in a forgotten work zone. Instead, it brings in the bees and butterflies.

And, thanks to the gravel and tiled pavers, it only needs a drink every two or three weeks.

Updates #7

Willard Middle School

The Willard Middle School Community Mosaic is now completed and looks great. Even the letters "H" and one of the "O's"in "School" that I worked on look OK. I think everyone who participated is quite proud.

Solar Panels Installation
on a Foggy Day

And we're proud to have an array of solar panels on the roof. We're renting them for the next 20 years (if we are around that long) but it should make a difference. And, with any luck, by the time the 20 years is up, we will have figured out how to read the monthly bill from PG&E. They don't make it easy.

We cannot recommend the company that we unwisely chose to do the work (more about that later, once the deal is completely finalized). But if you want to save money and help save the planet all at once, you might give Solar City a call. Our neighbor had a great experience with them.

Summer Amaryllis

Pumpkins and a blooming amaryllis. Must be summertime. The pumpkin grew across the driveway with little water and even less sun. It is now soup. The amaryllis? Who knows, but it seems to re-bloom just because.

Looking forward to the 2017? Well, I first need to make sure that there isn't a cactus growing out of my head. Yeah, right now the world just seems very prickly and confused, so I might as well stop scratching and join the resistance.

Handcrafted at the Senior Citizens' Ceramics Class
St. John's Church, Berkeley, CA

August Fun: Community Mosaic Mural

I completed the "H" and began the "O"

Willard Middle School Mural

If you can spare a few hours on any of the remaining weekends in August, and don't mind wearing old clothes and getting a little dusty, then the Willard Middle School Community Mosaic in Berkeley would welcome you.

Not only will you be helping out, but you also get the chance to practice your tiling and mosaic skills. Rachel Rodi is heading up the effort, and the team is doing a fabulous job. When I was there this past Sunday, there was a large crew of parents, teachers, friends and students (boy, had I forgotten what young teen chatter was like. Somehow I doubt that it has changed much over the past forty-plus years) just working away.

And if your backside gets tired from sitting on an overturned bucket, it's OK to wander off for a cup of coffee or a snack.

To sign-up, click here.

Willard Middle School
2425 Stuart Street
Berkeley

Dreaming of Egypt

Not Completely Tiled

Covered in Grout

Last year, we seriously considered visiting the pyramids in Egypt - hardly anyone else was going, so we wouldn't have to worry about the crowds, right? But somehow we just weren't comfortable with the level of security required for the trip. It's not that we were scared for our own safety as much as I really didn't want to be escorted by armed guards and protected behind metal detectors while on vacation. As well, knowing that this insecurity is what the Egyptian people face every single day, sometimes even from their own government, well, somehow we just didn't go.

Grout Mostly Removed

Instead, I went out to the garage.

It's not that I consciously intended to imitate an Egyptian-esque design; sometimes these things just build themselves. I wasn't even too aware of how it was shaping up until the project was underway. I think it's the colors mostly, that suggest desert sands and starry skies. But as I was working on this piece, I did have time to consider ancient glories and clouded futures.

Ready to be Sealed

'Bout Time for that Ol' Turtle

Some things simply go more slowly than others. For example, turtles. For example, this concrete turtle that was given to me by my parents a while ago. Just how much is "a while"? Well, my father passed away in 2002, and it was long before that.

During that while, it would cross my mind that I should do something to dress up the little guy. But I never got around to it. So instead of having it hang around and remind me of my failings, I put it in the side yard - officially, my neighbors' side yard (you have to understand that their "side yard" is all of about 3' wide and butts up against our driveway. Our side yard is equally narrow.) and let the weeds hide it. Perhaps the turtle might even wander off?

Eventually, it became obvious that the turtle wasn't going anywhere, and the side yard, our side at least, needed a facelift. A drought-tolerant facelift. So why not include the turtle in the project, too? Give him a make-over for his little home?

A few bits of glass tile, some gem stones, a bowl of leftover grout and now this fellow with the shiny new mosaic shell is the guardian of the door to our house's crawl space. And my neighbors didn't even notice.


Dr. Science says:
Well, turtles are slow because they don’t have to be fast. They’re herbivores, so they don’t have to chase their food. They have nice, thick shells, which means that most predators simply don’t bother with them. So, they don’t have to chase food, and they don’t have to run away from predators, so there isn’t any reason for them to be anything except slow.

When Friends Give You (#3)....

Old broken plates, cover a stepping stone.

I already used up a bunch of donated tiles for a similar project, but I had to fuss around a bit to make it feel right. This one pretty much put itself together in less than a day.

The one element in this square which was from my own stash is the white pieces with the blue rim. They came from my best guy, or rather, from the cafeteria at UC Santa Cruz in the 1970's....I have never asked for the details of that story.



And the second square? I still had a few shards of blue plates left and I should have been able to throw them out, right? But that would have been too easy. You see, during a recent garage clean-out, I rediscovered a stack of handmade star tiles (created a while ago in ceramics class). I can no longer remember why I thought I needed those lumpy star tiles in the first place, but clearly, they belong with the blue plates pieces...

Thank you, Jean!

Mosaic Project #2

The garage is unrecognizable, what with a new roof, new overhead door and new lights that actually turn on when you flip the switch.

And it got a total clean-out. The bulky pick-up guys came and took what the dog walkers and pedestrian commuters left behind. And all those old paint cans, dead batteries and dried out caulk tubes were delivered to the proper authorities. Now the garage is so clean, we're thinking that a real, life-size car might just fit inside. Unbelievable.

All this work has meant that a lot of partially completed projects were rediscovered, including this ceramic planter which I tiled a number - think of a very large number - of months ago. It has simply been waiting for someone to go get a new bag of grout.

However, one question remains: which lucky plant will get to call the blue pot "home"?

Mosaic Project #1

When people asked me what I was going to do once I retired, I said that I was going to "do" mosaics. Now, a little more than a year later, I have at least one thing to show that I am not a complete shiner-of-on, only a little slow.

I covered this terra-cotta planter (13" cube) with glass tiles in a very simple pattern. Yeah I know, it's really more of a tiling job than a mosaic. But at least it's done. And really, it's the cuphea that completes the effect.