Skip navigation
Mosaics and mosaic making information from The joy of shards Mosaics Resource

A mosaic project inspired by a Moroccan ceramic bowl

preparing the morrocan mosaic project

I wanted to make something with a strong visual impact using a broken Moroccan ceramic bowl someone gave me. I cut pieces of mirror glass into angled pieces with a tile cutter and fixed them to a board with PVA (white craft) glue. Usually I like to fit all the shards together as I go, but I wanted to make sure of a vivid star burst with the mirror pieces first. The disadvantage of this is that it takes more time and trouble to fit the shards around something which is already fixed.

The fibre board has been prepared by scoring with a knife and priming with dilute PVA.

assembling the pieces for the project

I'm starting to fit the crockery to the pattern. I've stuck down the border and now I'm experimenting with the body of the design, playing with different effects. These pieces haven't been stuck down yet (as you can see if you compare with the finished article below).

the finished project

I've grouted in white to bring out the brightness of the colours.

To continue the theme, here are some pictures of traditional zillij mosaic in Morocco; Iznik tiles in London; and Islamic-influenced geometric patterns at Monreale, Sicily.

©2001-8 All pictures and text are copyright
the joy of shards Mosaics Resource