Backsplash From Broken Pots, Tiles & Acrylic Mirror

Unfortunately I don't have photos on how I made this, as, at the time of making I didn't think it might be of interest to anyone (the same applies to all my previous projects).

This is my first mosaic and after unearthing scraps of old pottery from my garden I decided to use them to make a backsplash for my hob.

My starting point was cutting three pieces of salvaged plasterboard to size and then think about a design to compliment the backsplash behind my sink, which was created by my late partner's family and inspired by one of his Hong Kong shipping paintings.

Having worked out my design and smashed some of the tiles into smaller pieces, I then applied them to the plasterboard with tile adhesive, whist the board was resting flat on a table. When dry I used a dark grey grout to finish.

Lifting the central part into position was problematic, as I didn't have any help and it was quite heavy. My measurements were a perfect fit, which made it quite difficult to manoeuvre into position. I had to go in at 45° angle. Disaster struck and the piece broke in half under its own weight (fortunately I had protected my glass hob!)

I fastened the bottom half of the broken piece in position with two screws. However when I went to fit the top section it wouldn't fit and I realised that the break had chamfered in two directions and the space I was left with gave me no room to manoeuvre.

It was necessary to remove the top pieces of acrylic mirror from that section and cut the board down by approximately one centimetre and recut the mirror pieces to match and stick them back on again. I was then able to put the broken top piece into position and again fasten with two screws.

The two side pieces were just fixed into position with adhesive.

To fill the gap around the edges I used some plastic beading.