Wow, that is so good!! Love those mixed colors of oblog globs.Some great plate patterns, too!

Maria

I'M SPEECHLESS... are you kidding me? HOLY COW!

WOW you are so fast!! Loving all the bright colors. That black and white plate is to die for!! The glass jelly beans are also wonderful. Where did you get those??

Have you already hung up the first piece? Did I miss it??

Chris

Are those frogs or leaves or licorice?

What a treat for the eyes!!

MM!!! What the heck? How..I mean..I thought you were a newbie! It's a stunning piece. I bet your DH is quite impresses with you ain't he??

I'm just stunned with how beautifully this is coming together. I love your color combinations, the flow of your pieces from one section to the next, and your incorporation of several different styles of tesserae - KUDOS!!

W O W !!! W O W !! WOW!!!
I've never seen anything so interesting and fantastic...
did you see something somewhere like this.... or did it just pop into your head....?
For true.. I'm just lov'n the circles. the plates and then the little bits of plates that are partial words.. and the colors !!!!!
Beautiful... fantastic !!!
Are you making it on board... so that you could take it with you should you ever have to move... cause I would never want to leave that behind....
It's just GRAND !!!!
Thanks so much for the fantastic Pictures !
I wanta be able to do that !!! WAaaahhhh!! but can't see it happ'n .. boohooo for me.
God Bless You
susiesunshine

O.K. Newbie the truth and nothing but the truth...how long you been doing this?Just joking but this is amazing.Your design and all the colors...you rock girl!Great job...You could also throw in a spoon ,a couple of can's like pepper dried mustard,salt and pepper shakers...would be good with your plates as far as color goes,but beautiful like it is...where'd you find the jelly beans?You can cut salt and pepper shakers in half with a wet saw.

It's all been said but .... That's Awsome!!!!

This is going to be amazing looking when you're done.
Love the color patterns & flow, also appreciate
how close your getting the individual pieces.
Nice work!

MARYMARY! This is FANTASTIC! It is EXACTLY what I want my backsplash to look like! Where oh where did you get all those fantastic colors?????? WOW!

MM, that is looking great! You've got some great plates there. I can't wait to see it on the wall. This will certainly make a lively and lovely kitchen.

That is going to be a bright and cheery kitchen when it goes up. Really pretty. Just wish I was allowed to touch the kitchen. I wanna do a backsplash!

Wow, thanks, everyone! It's true, this is my very first piece- honest- cross my heart, hand on The Bible (not quite ready to die, though).

I think most of "it" comes from homework, and studying other pieces to get a feel for what *I* think looks good. As far as working the sections, I can say a couple things:

1. I'm totally not afraid of color. I'm more afraid of blahse' than anything. When I go to HD, I love the paint section. I play with the color screen thingy, and see what colors they have working with other colors. I like to think I have an eye for what "works." I pick a color, and lay out the whole section first, then glue it down. Then I find a totally contrasting color, and put that next to it, and see what "happens." If nothing happens, I try another color. The light colors will never be next to other lights simply because there isn't enough contrast for the colors to pop. Likewise, I won't "blend" colors to make it so it is "easy" on the eye to go from one section to the next. I want the eye to go OH WOW! and bounce frantically from one section to another. I loved those "word" tiles/plates because they have interest...makes you wanna get up close & personal with it.

2. Ok, have to give away this secret: The miriad of tesserae is an easy way to "cheat" when you can't make a section work- HA!

3. Found the oval globs at Dollar Tree.

4. Black leaves are actually beads that I found in Michael's.

5. No, the other section isn't on the wall yet; I'm not allowed to do anymore PHDs in the house ;) They'll all be put up together.

6. Sources of "color:"
TJ Maxx (they have those Transferware plates in several colors- B&W, Brown, Pink, Blue- and are about 2.99 each, as I recall. They nip SOOO nicely!)
Salvation Army Thrift store (even the most boring, ugly plates are more colorful when you break the "edge" color off for tiles
Goodwill

Thanks again, everyone! Got a sick kid at home today, so I get to work on it some more!

Sorry, Sunshine- forgot to answer your question. The original inspiration for the project came from the "other" site- they were bragging on another gal's backsplash project, and it had every kind of tesserae imaginable from shells & rocks to tiles, plates, and "all things crafty." It was amazing.
I started out wanting to do something like that, but ended up with this, which I'm liking a lot.
The semi-circles were an "accidental" inspiration: I started the first piece with a section of red. Then I didn't know where to go from there, but picked up the circular form of the B&W transferware plate, and set it down. It clicked instantly, and I've just ran (run?) with it from there.

WOW!!! I love all the color! This is fantastic!
Definitely a conversation piece for your kitchen!
Quite inspiring for a newbie as I am one, also!
Can't wait to see more!

What an amazing bunch of colors! That is just so much fun to look at. You have found some really great stuff to work with. GREAT JOB!!!!

Hazie

gotta be from klinger's backsplash...
that one I have been bonkers about, since the very first post I saw of it, about around 4 years ago, by now...

anyone who attempts and dares to do this, is at the top of my list of for creativity.

this many years later, I still look at my boring backsplash, with the plain strip of wall paper border print..
at least i'ts a pretty design of wall paper.lol

it has a French flair but my daughter chose it and put it in, while I was living up on the canal, in '04 and '05

now, it's mine to recreate..and I keep thinking I want it in a 'gypsy caravan' style, whatever that is.
I remember 'weird gardens' red kitchen....
that's sooooooooooo appealing to me!

;(*_*);

I LOVED klinger's backsplash! So unique, and the SPOON thing!!! Love it!

This is the one that inspired me:

Here is a link that might be useful: Kat G's backsplash

I love yours so much more than Kat G's backsplash! Loving all those colors. At first glance I thought your black beads looked like raisins LOL

Barb

WOW!!! We've unleashed a mosaicing monster!!heh heh! GO FOR IT!!! I'm liking it!!! Jane

Last pix for today; got more done on the other end. Maybe I'll have time to work on it again this weekend. Hey look, I finally found a way to work that fruity tile-thing in so it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb...

And I can see that when I start to get tired my grout lines get bigger. Will have to stop sooner next time.

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

O.K. so you've got me wanting to do this.
That website was pretty cool. I can see how you'd be inspired!
I can't wait to see your finished wall. How much more is left?

This would now be half of the wall over the main counter & sink. There's one more vertical piece about the size of the first one (8" x 30+"), which goes on the right side of the window over the sink, then another section as big as this one. Oh, and a little 4" x 45" space above the sink/below the window that'll need to be filled.
I'll probably mount them at that point, but I want to do the connecting wall, too. (The counter turns 90-degrees, then a little more counter space, and a little space over the stove.)

By the way, what are your thoughts on grouting those buttons???

I'd really rather NOT think about it......

Wow, it's lookin great. I love all the bright colors you used. I wonder how much that gal paid to have her backsplash done? It's so labor intensive I bet it wasn't cheap. I'd use a bery soft grout on those buttons, just smoosh it in all around them. They look great,
Cindy

Lovin' it! That link, wow! Ostrich skin on my backsplash, not so sure. But the rest of it, AWESOME! Enjoyed that eye candy, thanks.

"Blahse"...hey, I resemble that remark!
Coming from the blending easy on the eye camp, I still
think your work is great!

Oh, I didn't mean to imply that anyone's work was blahse'...OMG I'm so sorry if anyone read that into my remarks. I meant that as a personal thing...defining blahse' as something that over a short period of time *I* would get bored with, and wish I'd done something more "exciting."
Like picking out wallpaper that I hate after I get it up on the wall, and wished I'd picked something else.

Sorry...guess my humor didn't come through. I didn't
think yo meant any harm. You actually did describe me
though...more of a "texture" person than a "color" person.
;o)

I love this! Wow! Your friends and family.. and folks for years to come will LOVE looking at this backsplash! And each time they look... they will see something new!
I admire your "bright blend" talents!
It's REALLY wonderful!!!
Katie

no, don't grout the buttons!!!
leave them alone and paint around them..that way, you won't be up till the next day, trying to scoop grout out of each button hole..gawd, that'd be way too time consuming and the paint would be plenty to cover the adhesive.

;(*_*);

I love all the colors. Can't wait to see this all put together. It's gorgeous.

Hey MM!! Color, color, color, you so using the best color combos ever! Love how ballsy this is! (sorry, couldn't think of another word that described what I REALLY meant.)Tackling a piece that will be permanent is just awesome in my mind. One day....

Do you mind sharing, how much do you think you have put into buying your tesserae? It's gonna be totally amazing when completed!

ok, here's a rough estimate on the costs:

I'd say the actual used tesserae is about 75% less than what I've spent, since I haven't put much of a dent in the supplies. I've bought a TON of stuff simply to have variety & choices. I get plates for 40¢ - 1.50 at Salvation army thrift & Goodwill. There's probably a buck-and-a-half worth of plates actually used so far. LOTS left from each plate that I've sampled here.
TJ Maxx I spent a good amount- probably $60-$70, but again, I've made only a small dent in the amount of tiles I gleaned from cutting. I got a ton of tiles from each plate, and those ran from 2.99 - 6.99 (I ended up returning the expensive ones.) There's about $15 I'd say used so far on this project.
Michael's I spent $40 on beads (on sale)...I've used about $7 already in this project.
Rocks & globs I got at Dollar Tree, and haven't put even a quarter's worth on this project yet. Buttons I got billions for practically nothing from a craft store GOOB sale.
The pre-cut plates from eBay were the most expensive- I got 120 tiles of each of 4 items from one gal for between $22 and $32 per 120 tiles. Those are the Vitromaster Metropolitan plates, and the "vintage" looking tiles with words. I've used about 1/3 of those already.

I'm convinced that this project is only costing me an arm & leg because it's out of yard-sale season, when I could have probably gotten a TON of other items for way cheaper, and when the "gotta-have-it-for-project-right-now" factor wasn't as urgent. It's killing me to function like this...I like to find bargains & squirrel them away for later use and know that I didn't pay squat for stuff when I get around to using it.

When I get a sec, I'll show you what I've got for tiles for this project...

So the damage for this project so far is probably in the area of $65+ and is probably going to run me 3x that by the time I'm done with all the sections, and the other wall. It sux paying retail, but I'm also a sucker for pretty dishes.

Wow! Good deals.
I can't even imagine how much it would cost if you had hired someone to do this $$$$ The general estimates
we had gotten to do simple glass tile grids was from $35
a square foot and up...and that was just labor.

{{!gwi}}

OMG!! I love all the beautiful china pieces you've used, also love the way you've placed them!! Can't wait to see it all installed, Can't believe this is your first mosiac, I would love to do my backsplash just don't have the guts to start. Now that you have created something this beautful, you'll be totally hooked!!