Beach Glass Mosaics- Teacup and Mug

I decided on a teacup since that's what some of the pieces actually were in the beginning. I traced a pattern onto some wax paper to use for tge outline. Next I imprinted that shape onto the watercolor paper as seen below. I wanted to be able to see the outline to know what areas of the paper would be painted for the background and the teacup area would stay white.

For the teacup art I used this grey chalk paint with a wet sponge brush to give it a very muted, washed look to the background. The outline left is the teacup and the steam which will also get a mosaic look with the addition of beach glass.

The mug pattern shown here was done in the same manner, the small rounded tool there is what I used to trace an imprint onto my watercolor paper. TIP: I have a little trick for copying patterns from my tablet without the screen being touched and losing my place. How? I have a piece of plexi glass that I place over the screen and use tracing paper or wax paper in this case to trace over the design to get my template.

Now comes the fun part, fitting the shards together inside the outline! This can take a bit of time and requires patience to try, try and try again until you get it right. Luckily I had a few pieces to choose from, all kinds of colors, patterns, shapes and sizes as seen here. I chose white sea glass for the steam column and chinaware for the teacup.

*Note if you do not have access to beach glass, you could safely break up any cracked or chipped dinnerware you have rather than just tossing it! I'd sandwich the glass inside a towel and smash lightly with a hammer or mallet.

I applied all of the pieces onto to the waterpaper with Aleenes Tacky Glue because it's strong and it dries clear. Get your pattern perfect before you start transferring and gluing to the background, this is a must! Here is the completed look in a shadow box picture frame.

I went another route next time , I tried to create a mug! I thought it too would make a great housewarming gift! Here is the image I found via Google and traced it onto waxed paper with a Sharpie for my outline. I didn't have tracing paper at the time so this was a substitution. .

I pieced them together on the outline first before gluing and transferring to the watercolor paper! The first attempt might not work out when you get to the last few pieces going in place, trust me I know! Here's the completed look for the mug, it has two handle pieces salvaged from the beach as well, see in the above photo. The steam column again was created with tiny clear sea glass that would have originally been bottles. This time for the background I chose a light green and the mug shards were mostly whites.

My motto has always been to use what I have, so on this rainy day I was able to make two housewarming gifts from old dishes that had gotten tossed away! I may have collected the pieces on a beautiful sunny day at the beach but I made great use of them when the weather kept me inside! It brightened my day afterwards too because I was able to create artwork that would bring a smile to the recipients! 😃