BIRD BATH

One of my favourite designers is the Victorian, William de Morgan.-- Reproduction of his tiles are still manufactured and are widely avilable. The cost of these exquisite pieces would normally be beyond the pocket of the average mosaic artist, but I was lucky enough to get hold of some seconds.
In designing this project, I wanted it to be obvious that I had used the William de Morgan tiles, so I tried to keep the overall feel of the piece in keeping with the designs on the tiles, grouping the different motifs-the peacocks, ships and fish - together in their own area.
This method is quicky by comparsion to ordinary mosaic. The individual pieces can be quite big and large areas can be coverd in a relatively short time. This project was completed by Sylvia and me in just one day. Using broken tiles or china is an excellentway of recycling an attractive material that would otherwise be thrown away.
There are 'ceramic dumps' where you can pillage such trophies. There is no specific list of the requirements here since, for obvious reasons, it will not be possible to reproduce this design exactly.

            Overall Dimensions: Bird Bath: 42 * 42 * 5 cm (16 * 16 * 2 in)
                  Plinth: Mosaic area consists of four trapeziums:
                     13 * 27 * 47 cm (5 * 10 1/2 * 18 in) high
                        Designer: martin cheek
             Makers; Martin cheek and Sylvia Bell

1 Using the tile nippers, break up some of the tiles and arrange them in an interesting way on the top surface of the bird bath. (You may want to wear rubber gloves to do this as the tiles can be sharp.) Use some of the most attractive tiles for this surface as this is the one that is seen the most. YOu will get a neater finish if you use the straight glazed machine edge of the tile for the edges of the birdbath. When you are happy, transfer these tiles to a board and put them aside.

2 The William de Morgan tiles are very thick (6 mm[1/4 in]) and as you mosaic each surface you leave the thickness of the tile showing on the adjacent surface. In order to disguise this as much as possible, it is important to start on the underside, then the sides, and finally the top surface of the bird bath, mosaicing over the edge of the tiles in each successive case. So, beginning on the bottom of the bird bath, cut the tiles to size and butter each piece with the rapid set floor and wall tile adhesive before finally placing it down. Leave to dry.

3 Now mosaic the four sides, making sure that you cover over the edges of the tiles on the underside. The William de Morgan ship designs had dolphins swimming along the bottom edge. If you are extremely skillful (or lucky!) you will be able to cut these out and place them on the corners of the bird bath.

4 Bring back the board with the presorted tiles on and stick these down. Once again,cover the edges of the tiles on the sides. You will be aware that the gaps between the tesserae are much bigger than in any other type of mosaic, this is the nature of working with broken tiles and/or china.
Continue until you have covered the entire top surface. We tried to keep the colours together for certain areas, such as reddish tiles with peacock feathers for the inner edge contrasting with darker blue tiles on the uppermost inner edge.

5 Grout the completed bird bath. Because the gaps are large, use a wide gap grout. You may find it easier to squidge the grout in with your fingers than use the grout spreader. Be generous with the grout, filling in any crevices,as this will strengthen the final piece. Wipe off the excess grout. The next day, use a piece of broken tile as a scraper to remove any excess grout that is obscuring any glazed area of tile. This is easier and quicker than it sounds.

6 Now start on the plinth. our plinth had attractive fluting on it which I didn't want to lose. There were also ribbed bands with tight curves that would have proved difficult to mosaic. I decided to leave the areas unmosaiced and blend the grout into the curves to incorporate it into the overall design. If your bird bath is basically square and plain, it may well be better to mosaic over the entire surface.
  Once again, I chose a large blue flower as the centrepiece for each side and the poppies for the corners of the central panel. Try to create contrasts between the neighbouring areas.

7 Continue in this way until you have covered all of the mosaic areas. Grout and clean up the plinth in the same way as the bird bath. Rub some grout into the untiled areas to blend them in with the tiled areas. In this case the grouting process goes a long way towards achieving a harmonious whole to the finished piece. Allow to dry for at least two days before cleaning off the surface scum with the liquid floor cleaner and abrasive pad.