mosaic fish paver for a memorial garden

And so it began

My husband helped me mix (well he did most of the mixing) and get the cement in into a hole I had dug in front of my driftwood seat.  He made it look so easy and I realized with my other projects, that had I paid attention to his lessons on mixing cement, I could have saved myself a lot of time, effort and possibly a hernia. I will not forget these latest instructions especially as I still have the paving in the glade to finish

I left this to cure a week or two while I drew a goldfish that would sit well into the cresent shaped

This was the actual size I needed it to be so I could then cut it out and draw around the outside exactly where I wanted it

At this point I felt relatively happy with how the fish was shaping up , I wanted the tail in larger more fluid shapes as a contrast to the smaller tiles in the fish. My real wish was to have brighter oranges and a larger range to get the shading a bit more 3D but I was using tiles I had already with a few extra scraps from a tile shop. They didn’t have a lot of coloured scraps as once again, colour seems to be out of fashion, so this is what I got.

Firstly I thought I would grout the fish with varying shades of orange and then white. After that I decided on an effect of ripples so went for those next as the final background was going to be fairly random, with hopefully, plenty of movement going on

And so it continued until we left for Sri Lanka. It was winter by this stage and getting wetter so it was just as well to be away and not tempted to be gluing down tiles. We had a very busy 6 weeks away, as is often the case with holidays and on returning,  spent the next couple of weeks just hanging out at home.  I started to itch to get back into the mosaic and get it finished before the arrival of a group who were coming to see the garden in November. I find taking photos is a really useful way of stepping away from the work you’re doing and looking at it in a more critcal way from a laptop screen, you can  spot mis alignments and odd placings etc. I won’t bore you with all of it but below is the final result, pre grouting of the background

I bought some cobalt oxide as A: I couldn’t find a suitable grout colour for what I had in mind and B: I had made a mortar for the grout of the fish and liked being able to play around with the colouring. So the day came to grout and although I was excited, I was also a bit nervous as I had never done a mosaic as large as this. In my usual sloppy, casual way, I used card and plastic bits around the edge to help contain the area for grouting. The final result shows the irregularities of this decision which may bug some people but not me in my sloppyness. Below is the final mosaic seen from the lawn side as the fish is meant to be viewed from the seat though I’m not sure what happened here as the photo is a bit fuzzy, you get the idea though I hope

and finally the garden around it. A Pohutakawa tree that one day will provide shade and, Heliconia Tortuosa on the left (both out of sight) with an orange flowering epiphyllum in a pot and a red flowering orchid on the right. I have planted a tiny blue grey succulent around the edge that has been dug up many times now by the birds so may take time to grow

This garden is a memorial to my Mum in law and stepson, both were artistic so I wanted to get things right. For me it feels right and I am happy with the result