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Mosaic Pot

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I finished another project! Yippee!

Mosaic Pot

This mosaic pot was made out of all the scallops that were caught while Paige, Jes, and Andrew were visiting over Labor Day last year. These are all of the scallops that Jes caught. Well, Andrew may have picked up a few, but Jes was definitely the star scalloper! I didn’t even get in the water since catching scallops requires snorkeling. Not in my skill set!

Scallop
This is a scallop. Really.
Scalloping
And this is how you spot them
Scallop
After spotting the scallop, you must dive down and find where it is hiding in the sea grass, pick it up with your special gloves and put it in the special net. Then swim back to the boat to put it in the special cooler. Doesn't that sound like fun?
Scallop4
And here they are in the special cooler. Looks like that's where we were keeping the empty refreshment containers, too.

 

Scallop5
After returning home, Cap'n Terry, Jes and Andrew cleaned the scallops. Maggie supervised.

 

Scallop6
Here they are sitting on their shells, nice and clean.

 

Scallop7
State regulations allow each person to collect 2 gallons of whole bay scallops or 1 pint of meat. Think we were safely below the limit!
Scallop8
Jes cooked them with some bacon and we all got a little taste.

So I saved the shells, cleaned them some more, soaked them in bleach and then let them dry in the sun.  And there they sat on my work bench until I saw this pot at Ikea–  good price for a nice size pot.  I did some research on the Internet on using terra cotta pots for mosaic.  Most of it was conflicting information so I decided to go with what I had on hand.  I sealed the pot inside and out with MinWax PolyAcrylic and used Weldbond to glue everything on the surface.Mosaic Pot1

Mosaic Pot2
See the color difference with the MinWax.

I was concerned about getting the shells to stay attached to the pot since there isn’t much connecting surface.  So I filled the shells with grout that I had just used on a different project.  Dumb idea.  When they were dry, the grout just fell out.  So then I filled them up with Weldbond glue.

Grout shells
This is the shape of the grout when it fell out. Thought about keeping them but figured I didn't need any more clutter.

 

Tile
My friend Donna gave me a bunch of tile when she got bored with doing mosaics. Thanks Donna!

 

I had to do a little bit at a time since the tile, shells, and glass gems slid off.  Which caused me to lose interest which resulted in this taking a whole lot longer than it should have.

Mosaic Pot3
Here the glass gems are starting to slide.
Mosaic Pot
How do I get anything done in that mess? See the pattern I made for the numbers? Didn't help. I also laid all the shells and marbles out on the long piece of paper that was the same length as the rim to make sure there were enough.

I covered all the shells with blue painters tape prior to grouting so I wouldn’t have to clean it out of the ripples on the shells.  No pictures of the next step since my hands were covered with grout while I pushed it into all the cracks and crevices around the glass gems and shells. Really a BIG mess.

But I finally finished!  And I love it!  Tilted letters and all!

So, Jes, Andrew and Paige, it’s time for you to make plans for your next scalloping trip.  Season starts July 1st!  Maybe you can get enough scallops this time to cover an entire pot!