The Iris design

The iris mosaic was inspired by a stained glass window I had purchased ten or so years ago. It hung in my stairway in a high rectangular window. It was hung with 50-lb. test fishing line but what we didn't realize is that after several years the line can weaken. It snapped and the stained glass window came crashing down and broke into many pieces. I didn't know if I should repair the window or throw it away, so stored it in my cellar thinking I might have time to repair it someday.  As the students and I were looking for another theme on which to base a design the stained glass window came to mind and we used the glass that defined the iris as a starting point. Again in this photo you can see the stained glass in the center. Tiles were placed around the stained glass and other irises were added. This is still viewing the mosaic before it's cemented and what you are seeing is the back of the tile.

In this photo the mosaic has just been cemented and flipped and the contact paper is still attached to the tile. Once the cement sets up a bit the contact paper will be removed.






After the contact paper is removed we can see the design.
The final step is then to put grout in between the tiles with a colored grout that accents the colors in the tile and that is shown in the final photo.