Mosaic Sculpture with Pottery Shards

"Olla de Historia"

A friend had old pottery shards and rock pieces in a box that he gave to me to create a mosaic. Since I was taking an online mosaic sculpture class, I decided to apply some of what I was learning to this project. I decided to make a 3-D wall hanging that looked like an old Native American pot, using the variety of pieces he gave me. My goal was to use ALL of the pieces!

Roll your mouse over each image to read what is happening.

---

The foundational shape is what takes the most time, but it was fun working with new tools and products (the hot knife, spray adhesive for styro, Apoxie Sculpt and Clayshay).

---

Here's where I made the new edge for the pot and created a pot shape with Clayshay.

---

Finally the fun part - attaching all the tesserae!

---

Now the background...

---

Finishing touches...

I used every bit of pottery except a shard that I used for testing finishes. I used most of the random stones. I could have used all of them, but it would have been overkill.

As to the name of the piece "Olla de Historia" means Pot of History. The shards are from random places, mostly in the Southwest, and each has its own history.