…while it lasted!

So I got this idea back in January.  I had seen pictures of tall mosaics that looked like a series of houses one on top of the other, and they looked really cool to me. Immediately I thought “I can do that!” And, since there were several long two-by-fours in my back yard, well, you know the rest.It wasn’t long before I had spray painted one of them and started my design.Even though I had these chairs in the middle of my breezeway for weeks, I was pretty sure it was going to be worth it.I took a lot of pictures during the process (blog material, you know). I wasn’t sure it really looked like houses, but I persevered. The blue diagonal thingy at the top is a stream. Don’t laugh. (I’m not saying you were, but…)I used Liquid Nails to glue the pieces on the board. So far it looked good…Finally it was finished. It has spent the past few months on the patio by the turquoise grocery cart and the big plants. Note: in case you missed it, I found the shopping cart in my driveway. I did not steal it from a grocery store parking lot. Just making sure you knew that. Click the link if you’d like the full story.

I really liked the way it had turned out, even though it never really looked like houses to me, much less hills with a stream at the top.The blue at the top is supposed to be the sky with clouds.And here is the bottom part with the grout just started.Fast forward to today, when I decided it was about time to clean up my work space on the patio. I moved the house mosaic over a little to sweep around it, and when I put it back I noticed the two rows of green glass gems at the bottom had fallen off. Okay, whatever, I thought. I knew I had hosed down the patio before, and I thought maybe that part had gotten wet. I can fix it later, I said to myself. But the next thing I knew, more and more pieces started peeling off!

Now this was a surprise! I tried to keep the houses together the best I could, but for most pieces, the grout was too brittle. Even the top part was coming off! All I had to do was barely pull on a section and it would separate from the wood with ease. I don’t mind saying I kind of didn’t like this new development…but, it was blog material, so I took some quick photos. It was getting hot out, so I decided it was time to go back inside and look up why mosaic tiles would fall off of a wood background.Needless to say, I discovered that I had made several major mistakes, not the least of which was using wood as a substrate on an outdoor mosaic in the first place. You are also supposed to treat the wood with more than just spray paint. (Now you see why I put that disclaimer about this not being a “DIY” blog in my previous post, right?)

Oh well, at least my “workshop” is somewhat clean now. And for some reason I wasn’t as disappointed as I could have been. That’s one good thing about having a blog. If you can look at a project fail as “blog material” it isn’t quite as bad somehow.

Meanwhile…

I guess I’ll have to think some more before I try that project again!