somewhere in between

This is a 'picture' I did over a couple of afternoons. It must still have been summer, because I was outside in the garden in the sunshine wearing shorts. Most of the bits are broken plates. There are a few little ceramic things I found at more car boots over the summer. I especially like the little watch, which shows 10.10, as that is usually around my coffee time! And the little moon near the sea shells at the bottom was a good find too!

back on the street

The autumn saw me covering the scruffy old windowsills in broken plates and tiles. The only ones I bought were the grey ones for the edges. The first sill incorporates some numbers. These were taken from a Spanish sundial tile I bought when I was a student in Alicante. When I smashed it up, I had no idea what I was going to do with the numbers, I just wanted the sun part. In a flash of inspiration, I decided to use the numbers 56490, the post code of this village. The second afternoon I was working on it, someone who lives nearby stopped her car outside and gave me a load more old plates. They are on the second windowsill, which I started a couple of days later. I incorporated the letters eap, my initials, and also the initials of the person this street is named after. So, it is a signature and a reference to the street. I also put in the number 8 - the house number. On the front of the sill, I added the Breton Triskel, the Celtic design which appears on all things Breton. I'd bought it from a lad at yet another car boot sale for 20c, not knowing at the time what I was going to do with it. I realised I was addicted to mosaics when I found myself working into the end of the afternoon, in drizzle, in a wind tunnel, wearing fingerless gloves and layers of T shirts and jackets. It was only autumn starting!

in the corner

The old doorway which linked to next door had been uncovered in April when I stripped off the wallpaper and found it boarded up. In typical French style, the electric meter was stuck on the wall right next to the window and in the same corner. Tricky problem, but together with my brother we came up with a plan to panel it all over and build a cupboard to hide the meters. On probably the hottest day of the summer, my brother built a frame in the corner, and panelled it over. A few days later, I decided to decorate the floor of what will become a bookcase corner. I'd already been messing around with an old plate I'd found at the tip, along with some vintage French tiles I'd bought off ebay for peanuts. I had a plate which a friend had given me - it was broken by one of her famous pizzas! I'd cut the border up to use because it matched the colours of the ol Breton plate from the tip. Only took a couple of hours to stick down the pieces and grout. A few weeks later, I built cupboards around the electric meters, now all that needs to be done is to fit the shelves ready for when my books get here.

sun and moon

In late June 2008, I was ready to replace the temporary base for the woodburner with something more solid and raised. With the help of a friend, I mixed wheelbarrowsfull of concrete for the new base. Surprising how much is needed, and without a cement mixer it's hard work! I'd decided to pebble the base, and tile the wall behind with some tiles which had been left in the outbuildings to the house of some friends. The previous owners had left them there. For the middle of the base, I had an ex-manhole cover from the tip; it's round with a wave pattern on. In the middle of working on this project, a good friend and neighbour from here died in rather tragic circumstances - he was only 39. My woodburner base and back looked just like a tombstone, and I found it hard to continue with it. After a week of forcing myself to crack on, it was finished, but even with the woodburner back in situ, it still looked like a cemetary monument. A few days later, I hit on the idea of extending it, so that it was no longer so angular. I had the idea of using a Mexican sun tile someone once gave me, and building it up from there. I had a load of dark blue, and some red tiles in the cellar, which I'd found along with others, in an old barn the summer before. All I needed was something yellow, and a few days later I went to a car boot sale and came away with some 1960s yellow bathroom tiles, and a couple of mirror tiles, and that same afternoon, I spent in the sunshine in the garden cutting the yellow and red tiles into little rectangles, and the mirrors into random flame shapes. The next day the sun section was finished. That evening I decided that the following day I'd put a moon on the other side, using some grey tiles from the same barn stash. I was sorry I didn't have a face for the moon, which would match the one on the sun, so I used a bit of mirror. a few days later at another car boot sale, I found a little ceramic moon face, and as soon as I got home, I drilled out the mirror and replaced it with the little moon. It no longer looks like a tombstone!

30/04/09: Look at later postings to see the lovely woodburner which now replaces the trusty old temporary one

stepping up

In 2006, after knocking down the hallway walls and then moving the front door to be flush with the front wall instead of set back inside the house, all the front steps had to be built up the depth of a full step. There was a gap of about 2 inches left under the door, and I spent all winter with a draught excluder roll thing, trying to keep out the wind and dust. I couldn't work out the best solution to the problem, then one morning, in mid-June, it was obvious - tile it, then of course, tiling became mosaicing.....

I found some inspiring images of the stairways in San Francisco. http://mosaicartsource.wordpress.com/2006/12/28/mosaic-stairs-san-francisco-golden-gate-heights/

Because my flight of steps is not high, I decided to decorate the treads, not the face as on the SF ones, which climb right up the hillsides. Inspired by the Gaudi benches in Barcelona, my steps feature random broken tiles from the tip, slate pebbles and some not so random bits cut out of some expensive, ex-display tiles.

During the four days it took me to complete the work, the sun beat down and it was really hot. Sadly for me, but luckily for the tiling, I was working in the shade all day long. I had lots of people stop and comment, and my initial concerns that Ménéac was not ready for this, were soon dispelled. Four months later, people still stop and tell me how pretty they are.

the rose windowsill

After spending the long dark days of February and March with a living room that had still to be tackled, I spent some long days in April ripping off the wallpaper with a steamer and scraper. On a trip to the tip with the bags of wallpaper, I saw someone about to throw away a load of china plates with little roses on. He was happy to let me have them instead of throwing them in. A few days later, on one of the first warm and sunny Spring days, I spent an afternoon in the garden cutting the plates up, with no idea what I was going to do with them. A couple of days later, on a wet, cold and windy April morning, it suddenly dawned on me what to do with them. At that time, it was one of the first things you noticed when you came in the front door.

the dolphins

In the summer of 2006, I came to Ménéac with my friend James, who was to spend 3 weeks with me before heading off to Greece to make a fresh start there. I was to spend 5 weeks here, and with help from James, would be 'decorating' this house to make it more to my taste. Well, it didn't quite work out like that, and within days, walls started coming down, wires were exposed, rotten wood went to the tip, the cellar floor was excavated. By the end of week 3, it was all too much for me, and the scale of what I'd taken on got to me. James suggested I dig out the bathroom mosaic tiles he'd rescued from a skip in Sheffield a couple of years earlier, and start a mosaic like I'd always planned to. It was one of the best things he ever did for me. It gave me enthusiasm again, and a goal for the bathroom, which by now had been reduced in size with a stud wall and new door that I'd put up. I decided on a large panel for the side of the bath - a bit ambitious for a beginner, but I liked the idea. I sketched out a design of an underwater scene, but when my new friend Bruno saw it, he suggested I put dolphins on instead of the fish I'd drawn. So that was how the design evolved.

2006 was a gorgeous summer, and I spent many happy afternoons in the yard behind the house, chopping and cracking small tiles into bits. James stayed for 3 months, I came backwards and forwards from Sheffield all summer, and Bruno dropped by most days to see the progress. Everyone had their favourite dolphin, including Patrick, my neighbour. James and I both came back to Ménéac at New Year, but the mosaic remained untouched as the kitchen floor came first.

It wasn't until summer 2007 that it was finished, along with a smaller one I started in Sheffield to go with it. Tiling and decorating the bathroom was my goal that summer, and I'd already decided that the panels were too good to be put on the side of the bath, so that is how they came to be on the walls. Incredibly, I managed to get them up there all on my own one boiling hot saturday lunchtime as a wedding party was coming out of the church. I hated the job of grouting them, and swore I would never do another mosaic as detailed as that again! And I also made up my mind to come here to live.