Mosaics pop up here and there on my walks. They’re a lot more time consuming to make than paintings or sculpture, but you can see why people make mosaics and display them anywhere the sunlight can catch them. Photos can’t really capture how they change as you walk past and the different elements reflect in different ways depending on the angle of the light.
Smaller Mosaics
They’re most common on a smaller scale for things like this planter and birdbath.
This small globe shows off the light-dispersing quality of mosaics nicely when you walk by, since the rounded glass not only reflects light but also refracts it.
From time to time you’ll see people putting up mosaics near their front doors as accent pieces, like these fairly abstract squares and this very striking mosaic eye.
Large Mosaics
But some people have gone all out for pretty extensive mosaic projects.
This house has not only separate mosaic elements above the porch but mosaics on the porch and lining the steps.
This mosaic is next to the entrance of a school. I’m guessing it was made with a lot of student contributions. Unlike other mosaics, the elements aren’t glass or ceramic, they’re plastic bottle caps glued into place.
And this set of steps looks like it may be a work in progress — work seems not to have started at the top, and only the top of the bottom step is covered in pieces of tile and glass right now.
It’s a little hard to see, but the bottom step spells out LOVE LIVES HERE.
You have a great eye for picking up on these things! Well done.
Thanks. I still can’t quite get my head around how much is out there where I live, and I haven’t been able to travel the past couple of years so I can’t walk around to other cities to see what they have now that I started paying attention.
Cool stuff! My wife came home with a bowling ball from a thrift store one day and I was seriously confused until she made something very similar to what you have there. We had it in front of our door until too many of the flat marble things fell off like what is happening to the one in your picture.
Exterior mosaics in particular have a bad habit of losing pieces if the bond to the backing isn’t right or if the backing gets any kind of flex due to heat expansion or water. Anything round must be particularly tricky.
Neat! thanks for sharing!
The bird bath is beautiful, and I love they way the mosaics look on the risers of the steps.
I love the bottle cap mosaic. Great use of things that normally go in the trash.