I finally finished the mosaic tray I was working on. I ran into a number of finishing issues that had me considering sitting the tray out in the middle of the road for traffic to “fix” for me. It took a little while to figure out a working solution and I think I succeeded. This project had a lot more of a learning curve than I expected. I will do more of it, but I’ll do things in a very different order next time.
The interior I painted a dark berry wine color to set off the pale pink of the grout and pick up the deep burgundy on some of the tile pieces. I was going to paint the entire tray, but the more I looked at it the more I liked it this way. I rubbed the wood with food grade mineral oil to give it a bit of protection and to make the wood stand out a bit more. I ended up using white cotton cord in the corners of the interior of the tray. This covered a multitude of those problems I was talking about.
The sealer I bought did not work the way I wanted/expected it to and I’ll be looking into another type for the next project. All it really did was make all the tile pieces look a little hazy. I ended up hitting each piece of tile with polish to make them pretty again.
Overall, I like my tray, but it’s definitely a first attempt. Not sure what I will ultimately end up using it for, but I do still think it’s pretty, if a little quirky in places. lol.
As for what else I’ve done lately… mostly working on these projects. lol.
I’m trying to make a game plan for streamlining my kitchen. I want to get back to making basics from scratch as I used to do, but until I can get the kitchen cleaned out, it’s difficult.
I’ve gone through my old t-shirts and the ones getting retired are going to start getting cut up for t-shirt yarn. I have enough now that I think I could feasibly make something with it. I’ve tried to organize my yarns. I gutted where they were being shoved and bought some huge totes. I bagged up a lot of it in gallon Ziploc bags so I can see it, but it would stay somewhat protected and packed it into the totes. I filled 2 huge totes with just the stash in my room. Next to tackle the barrels upstairs.
Also, doing the A-Z Blogging Challenge. I’m doing A-Z Knitting Stitches. Today’s got published about an hour early because I forgot and just pubbed it when I finished it. I think they’ll forgive me. hehe.
What have you all been working on lately?
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Your tray is beautiful! I did a mosaic tray years ago that caused me several headaches. Most of the time it is on the back of the kitchen counter behind the fruit bowl and is purely decorative. Every once in a blue moon I use it for serving. It is heavy and certain parts of it didn’t turn out how I pictured.
I know what you mean. This didn’t turn out precisely like I was planning, but I’m not unhappy with it. I was able to fix the few little things that were most messed up. Luckily they were pretty easy to cover up and I certainly learned what not to do next time. Not sure where I’ll end up using it yet.