Ooh mdunkin, those plates and cups are very pretty! Great score!!!

Barb

Oh, wow - great pattern. I looked a few minutes on ebay but they are all too expensive for my stinginess

I dunno Slow. I feel you get what you pay for. Here in CA, all of the thrift stores have nothing but white boring dishes. I usually buy my dishes on eBay to break for mosaic. I paid $20 for ONE Meissen rose plate. I just had to have it for a project. That is the most expensive plate you can buy. Ask me when I bought new clothes and it has been so long that I won't be able to give you an answer, but my $$ tends to go for plates. Here is a cute story. When I bought the Meissen and told the seller to ship it cheaply because I didn't care if it broke, she was alarmed at first, then asked to see a photo of the mosaic. When I finished the project, she was do delighted that she sent me a surprise box with 6 more identical plates to break, that had minor chips on the side, that she could not have sold anyway.

I am enclosing a link to the Meissen plate so you can see what they cost. LOLLL

Here is a link that might be useful: Meissen Rose

Ohhhh, That would look good as a mirror frame!!!

That Savanna pattern is so cool,lots of WOW factor!
I'd love to see what you made with the meissen.

Oooooooooo - beautiful plate but I'd NEVER pay that much for dishes, even though we don't have interesting ones here either. That's why I went to glass, but I DO love mosaics w/dish shards, and plan to get back to it as soon as I can find some dark greens.

Cindyloo: Here is what I did with the Meissen Rose. Now this is the plate I paid $20 for, and it wasn't all that easy to cut. I have a box of 6 salad plates in the same pattern that the eBay seller sent me for free. LOLL

This is a wicker shoe shine box believe it or not! I had removed the foot rest on top so I could apply the mosaic. I plan to use this wicker box for storing rolled hand towels. It is so yummy chic!

Slow, LOL, you are funny. I won't do it again, but I had been after this one for the longest time. Now I don't do glass. Don't take it personally, but I find glass is so cheap compared to dishes and to me, it isn't the same. I love the feel of shards on a substrate. Now for all of you that love COLOR...you want to go with these makers:

Fiesta, Nancy Calhoun and Lu Ray. Lu Ray is easy to cut, but mostly shabby pastel colors. Fiesta is thicker and cuts well, but I use Fiesta mostly for outdoor projects. Fiesta is made by Homer Laughlin. If you figure what the sellers charge for cut up Fiesta, and mind you, they cut them in squares, something I don't care for, you are better off buying the plates. Fiesta comes in great garden eye popping colors and mixes well with patterned dishes.

{{!gwi}}

Sorry about the distorted images, but the online albums tend to do that. Had I had the option to just upload from here, it would look better, but I don't see that as an option.

MDunkin

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

I'm with Slow on this. I LOVE glass. So many colors, textures. The possibilites are endless. The thickness is always the same so cutting and grouting is easier too. I like the intricate patterns I can create with it to.
I admire the dish people, don't get me wrong, but I'm a glass princess..

Love the plate you found!! And what a pretty (expensive) shoe shine/towel box!!

Thanks for the list of easy cutting plates!

Maria

Congrats! You'll love working with those. These are the same dishes I used on my most recent terracotta pot. And I think you'll find that the cups on these are also easy to work with - I know what you're saying about some cups being thicker and harder to work with....but these were a dream - they broke beautifully. I used them on the rim of the pot - (my post "WIP-Terracotta pot"). I lucked into a whole set of this pattern at the thrift store! I'm getting ready to start another pot with them.

Bama - I agree with everything you said about the glass - I've only worked with dishes, but absolutely LOVE the look of the stained glass - it is so RICH looking and has a pizzazz factor that I don't think the dishes have. I think if I had started out with glass, I would have probably stuck to it...but now I have a TON of dishes...so need to keep with it for awhile. I've been collecting stained glass whenever I find it at thrift stores, etc. and I'm looking forward to working with it one day. You guys have made me ITCH to try it.

Hi Lyndalu, I am thinking of doing a mirror with these. I have some solids already cut and left over from another project, and I have to see if they will match. I have a ready-cut mirror in a square shape, I just need to find a good wooden substrate to prime first. So...if you say the cups are easy, then I will try to use them, but in the past I have never used cups, only the gold gilded handles, like on bird houses. Working with china is true 'pique assiette' art, where glass has been around for a long time. I feel it is like an honor to have such a wonderful china collection. I have been buying and cutting china (and now I can cut the flowers into heart shapes), for a long time. There is nothing like it in my opinion. I did see your beautiful pot /planter, and I couldn't tell that you used the cups. Absolutely could not tell, so I will take what you say seriously and see how the cups work for me. After all, I have to do something with them.

I like your projects, MDUNKIN, very pretty. I haven't done much with dishes, and I LOVE stained glass! So many colors, and what BAMA said about thickness is a big plus. That said, I have a few dishes and am on the lookout for more, as I would like to do more with them also.

Ladyronnie, thank you for the kind words. .

If you want to use stained glass with dishes, YOU CAN. I use mostly china, but I do use stained glass with some pieces. China plates can be anywhere from fine bone china (harder to cut, less design), to china pottery, like Homer Laughlin or Salem. Believe me ordinary china will work well with stained glass. It is the same in height, so you don't have to worry about the shard being higher than the glass. I try to stick with salad and dessert size plates, because it depends on the manufacturer of the plates, some dinner size and worse yet, cake size plates (10-11")are thicker than the salad plates, resulting in difference in heights if used with glass. On the other hand Fiesta is much thicker than regular china, may be a bit thicker next to your stained glass and for sure, Stoneware will be way too thick. I tend to use the heavy colorful plates for outdoor things, because my indoor theme is mostly shabby chic in pastel colors, but I LOVE the fruity color burst in the garden area!