Jen's Mosaic-ed Plant Pot. Finally.

I'm determined to finish some old projects this year.
I started a mosaic on a plant pot for my friend Jen way back in 2005.
Oh my gosh, I finally finished it!

Way back then, I had started out using a couple different construction grades of PL glue that are used with a caulking gun, but they were too heavy duty and too messy.
Also too hard to remove if I had any excess.

I switched over to Liquid Nails for Small Projects to hold all the extra decorative trinkets.
When I grouted, however, the grout just knocked all the trinkets off.
Aarrggghhh!
I did some research on glue, and reviews suggested Weldbond.
Unfortunately, I had the same problem--the decorative items just wouldn't stick.
So frustrating!
I got so annoyed that I just wrapped up the projects and stashed them away.

Finally, I think I've solved the problem.
E6000 seems to actually hold, and it dries clear.
I'm crossing my fingers it lasts.
So far so good.

This pot started out when Jen bought a condiment tray in Mexico, and broke it even before she got it home.
I asked her if I could have the pieces, and I made her this pot as a surprise for her birthday (that I um, stashed away until now).
I used garden imagery throughout.

I also used other broken plates, broken pottery, and I embellished with pebbles, rocks, tumbled stones, marbles, half-marbles, jewelry, metal pins, coins, and buttons.
See the coin on the right? (click on the photos to enlarge)
There are three butterflies--two pins, and one that had been part of a plant pot.

I love the caterpillar on the mug handle, and the frog face.
There are three ladybugs.
I enjoy working in layers, and I love the three dimensional quality, versus just thinking in terms of pieces being flat.


Jen loves frogs, so there are three different frogs on this pot--this gold brooch, the green face that was a pitcher, and a small ceramic one that had been on a vase.
The dragonfly is a large button.
Note some of the additional broken plates include more sunflowers.
I think the large leaves may have been part of Jen's original item.
I added another mug handle, this time a solid blue, both to counter-balance the one on the opposite side, and to add fun to the design.

The little caterpillar figurine is by Hagen Renaker, and is one of my favorite embellishments on the pot.
There are three watering cans (or parts of) on the piece--the silver one was a pin, the small white spout below was a figurine, and the large blue spout was on a vase.
Note the ceramic rose, and there's the froggie.
See the ceramic stem with thorns? What an awesome find that was! (that was thrifted, but I did purchase some embellishments on ebay. Most of the other plates used I already had in my stash).
The small silver sunflowers are buttons
The large silver sunflower is a brooch.
The little gray bird is from a larger figurine, if I remember correctly. This is one of three birds on the piece.
The three dimensional piece is part of one of the condiment trays of the original piece Jen purchased--a blue-glazed pottery with a sunflower design, it featured of six (or was it four?) trays that grouped together side by side to form a circle.