Smashing broken cups and plates to make a mosaic

I have been collecting my brother John's beautiful ceramic pieces for years. Often they are things he would not approve of  me using as he does not sell many rejects- he smashes them, as his standards are so very high. I rescue some pieces when I can.  Of course I do have pieces that were once perfect too. Things do break.  After some effort, I trained everyone not to throw any broken thing away, although I still lost a few pieces due to family ruffians and ignorant people in my living space.

One quiet Sunday afternoon I started this project, but ran out of John's broken pieces. . I used one of my own pieces, a plate my husband had decorated and one of my earliest teacher Barbara Strauss's stoneware mugs ,  but had to stop and wait a month, before I could get some more beautiful shards from John's Swellendam studio.

I started by smashing them up with a hammer after covering with a thick layer of newspaper. I discovered later that the glass mosaic cutters worked very well on the pieces too. High fired porcelain is quite similar to glass.

I arranged them in squares and the design sort of developed from there. I glued them all down carefully. The 2nd batch of broken stuff I got via my mom included a stunning teapot which had a perfect lid.

Grouting this mosaic was quite daunting as the edges of the pieces are very sharp- and you might see bits of sponge still on the mosaic as the photos were taken while the grout was still drying. Not a good idea to fall against this mosaic- it could be very nasty. So it should be kept out of the reach of small children or wobbly adults.

cracked fish tea party

John's  perfect  and still entirely whole work can be seen on :http://johnnewdigate.com