Trying mosaic tiling

As some of you might know, I have been (forever) building a Mediterranean garden in my backyard. There is a pond in the garden which we put right in front of the fence between us and our neighbours. The pond has a 1.5m by 1.2m wall for a water feature. We want to mosaic this area with a nice design which suits the Mediterranean theme. Because I haven't tried my hand at mosaic tiling before, I decided to attend a workshop to learn at least the basics before I attempt taking up such a big job.

I found Lynne and Jennie of Benianna Mosaics through a friend. They are located at Bungendore, a lovely little town which is 55km from Canberra. A couple of weekends ago, I attended their two-day workshop.

Both Jennie and Lynne are mosaic artists but each has another profession that they retired from. They love what they do with a true passion and are teaching this art to others.

 The workshop was held at Country Women Organisation, a lovely little cottage in Bungendore.

We were six lovely women who got along very well :)

Mosaic tiling is so much fun but it sure requires a lot of concentration and, in some cases, some very precise cutting. It is not like, ok give me a piece of tile and I smash it and then glue them back on a surface.You cut your tile, then trim into the shape you want, file the sides, place it on your design. Then re-place it and re-place it...until you fit all your pieces nicely. Like quilting really.
We were given two design options: a butterfly and a fish. The instructors had already made the templates from a piece of paper. We traced the design on to our concrete paver. I, of course, played with my fish and made it a little different.
I chose to work with black, red, orange and an orangy yellow for my fish and some blues for the background.

 I love how black defines the tail and the fins.

Working slowly and adding pieces bit by bit, my fish started to look like a real fish.

Isn't he gorgeous?

I have received some compliments from my instructor which boosted my ego! They said that I was really good at using my hands and that they could see the quilter in me with my precision cutting and long thinking and playing over the placements of the pieces LOL

I couldn't finish my fish (nice rhyming) in this workshop. We were given all the material we needed to finish our projects except for the cutting tools. I am yet to buy them and finish this gorgeous fishy to be a feature piece in my garden. 

Here are what the other participants made:

What about you? Have you ever tried mosaics? Would you like to? What is your experience?

Cheers,

Nurdan