N Your Dreams: The Process

The title of the post is supposed to refer to the process of my mosaic project. Unfortunately, for me, it has also been a process of trying to figure out upgrades to my computer. You see, last night, my husband, on his own, decided to upgrade my operating software to Cloud. Then he decided to upgrade my iPhoto. He is now playing golf and I am now struggling with how to figure out all the changes that have been made to my computer. I hardly knew what I was doing before. I feel frustrated more than words can say. I am sure, at some point, I will get the hang of it, but right this minute... well... let's just get on to what this post was intended to be about!

I thought you might like to see the beginning part of the process for my mosaic project.

I first set different pieces of china out, on the table, I am going to mosaic.

I looked at it for some time and sort of got a plan in my head.

Next, I started cutting up the china I decided to use. When You have a piece, such as a dinner plate, one must first decide if one is going to use

the focal ( the center of the plate )

or the rim. It cannot be had both ways.

If you want the focal and the rim then you need to have 2 pieces of china that are alike. If you want to use the focal, you slowly cut around the edge of the plate, until you have the center piece.

If you want the rim pieces the process is entirely different.

You start on the edge in the center of the plate, at the rim . You have the mosaic cutting tool on the rim facing the opposite rim and you cut. This should cut the plate in half. Next you do the same procedure cutting the plate in fourths, and so on. Then you trim the rim pieces until you have the edge you want. I will take pictures of this process later and post them for you to see.

The above pictures placed together are a product of this new updated iPhoto and me not knowing how to use it. I would redo them but it would take way too much time and I would feel frustrated all over again.

The above pictures are of the cutting tool and the box over which I have cut and cut and cut the china.

The second picture is a prototype of my design.

The more I looked at it, the more I just didn't like it.

It seemed too busy. So, I decided to do something different.

See the glove below...after cutting china for hours

my right hand got a big blister and was sore, sore, sore.

Why didn't I think of this before?

I got a glove and put it on my hand. It helped immensely!

This is my new design. I decided I needed to put a border around the outside of the table to match the border around the center plate I used. Before I had set the table with a salad plate above each dinner plate and rimmed all the plates. It looked too busy. Now I have dinner plates rimmed around the table and one focal dinner plate in the center. My friend, Kim, gave me the center focal.

Wait till you see her storage space....

This will be a later post!

Another shot at the full design

and below

a shot of the center focal.

I just love it. The rim is from a different set

of dishes. Remember, I told you if you only had one

plate of a particular kind you have to choose the focal

or the rim. In this case, the rim was pretty but certainly

not as pretty as the focal in the center of the plate.

I had purchased a set of the china that I cut the rim from. I just love it... Wide, beautiful embossed rim. I cut up all the dinner plates but one to get enough to go around the outside of the table, to match the center.