My Creative Blog:
Broken China Mosaic

MOSAIC
I will bring my hammer down on you hard
And for that brief second close my eyes
(believe me, this hurts me more than you')
All of your beauty '
Shattered with one swift swing
And cleaning up the pieces '
A messy job.
But I must admit ' I thought of you,
In that particular, sentimental way
before I did you in
Oh, the beautiful company you've held,
The admiring eyes,
The groping hands once all over you,
Fingertips touching and feeling
Your every sleek curve and smooth'
Patience is the key now
To give the mastic time to dry before
Mixing just the perfect hue of grout
to complement your new assemblage
Oh wedding vase, anniversary plate,
Knick-knack cat, teapot lid.
-Laura Beth Love
1999

Mosaic bird's nest bowl made from broken china

Wedding Vase

Anniversary Plate

Knick-knack cat

Royal Winton Chintz teapot and lid
Below: Necklace I made from same chintz pattern shown above

poem copyright 1999 Laura Beth Love

T his sweet little orphaned bird was once one of a pair of small salt shakers.
Now he's got a brand new home — among some shards of history...

Built upon a vintage wooden bowl, this mosaic nest of sorts tells a colorful story of potteries long closed and abandoned. The majority of the pottery used for this piece was collected by my uncle, hand-picked at low tide from the banks of the Thames River in England between the Globe and the National Theatres. Some of the shards in this piece date as early as the 1700's.
Like collecting seashells along the shore of the ocean, the banks of the Thames offer colorful shards of broken china and pottery ' reminders of the once thriving potters that populated the area. Collecting these shards is known as mudlarking — as beachcombing refers to ocean shores, mudlarking refers to river banks — and it's history runs deep.

A century or two ago, the term Mudlarks referred the very poor of London who scavenged the riverbanks along the Themes collecting anything they could find that might have some value. Mudlarks were most often children or elderly folk -those without income who needed to scavenge to survive.
They looked for coins, bottles, pieces of pottery or coal ' the sorts of things that might have been discarded or fallen off of a ship. They would collect these found objects and then sell or trade them for food.
Nowadays you can still comb the shores for pottery shards, but beware....it is said that all that is found on public ground is property of the Queen!
Happy Hunting! ~ Laura

I spent most of yesterday working on my china mosaic skulls...

These are so relaxing to make, and I think they're pretty cute too!

If ever there was a day for chocolate and goodies, today's that day! Today we celebrate love ~ some with kisses and hugs, others with cards and candy. What's not to love about the heart itself? Here are some mosaic hearts I designed and created using shards of vintage broken china and vintage images. Like each one of us, these mosaic hearts each have their own unique personalities. Happy Valentine's Day to you! Enjoy, and remember to tell someone that you love them!

~ Find Peace ~

~ Hot Stuff! ~

~ Dream Big ~
all designs & artwork copyright 2009