Mosaic Pots With Broken China
2 Materials
We love the look of a mosaic made with broken china. The china tiles have such an elegant, vintage style that looks lovely in the garden -- perfect for dressing up terra cotta pots. We thought breaking china into tiles might be hard, but it turns out it's easy! All you need is the right tool. Here's how you do it.
For a complete list of the tools and materials you'll need for this project, plus step-by-step instructions, head over to our blog RunningWithSisters.com.
For a complete list of the tools and materials you'll need for this project, plus step-by-step instructions, head over to our blog RunningWithSisters.com.
The first step for making china mosaics is to gather decorated plates. We find these at flea markets, thrift stores, and garage sales. (We think this is a really fun step!) We decided to add three-dimensional china roses to this project so we looked for china knickknacks with flowers, too.
If you've never done it before, breaking the china for a mosaic might seem daunting. How do you cut the plates? Well, once you see how it's done, it's not that hard. So we made a video to show you how. The key is to use the right cutting tool!
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The trick to cutting up plates into mosaic tiles is to use either tile nippers or wheel cutters. You just squeeze your cutting tool onto the edge of the plate and a piece of china will break right off!
Keep cutting the china pieces into smaller pieces until you have all the tiles you need. Then glue these onto your terra cotta pots.
We used sanded white grout for this project and mixed it according to the directions on the package. You really do just smear the grout all over the tiles, making sure you get it in between the tiles.
Then you clean the grout off the tiles with a damp sponge.
We let our grout dry for 24 hours and then sealed the surface with grout sealer. Then we planted our trio of mosaic pots with trendy succulents!
To see the complete how-to, including steps to chisel the roses off the knickknacks, come over to our blog at RunningWithSisters.com. We have loads of mosaic projects, and we are always available if you have any questions. Just leave us a comment and we'll reply!
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
Comments
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Love it!
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Thanks, Kay!!
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
I have made several mosaic pots lately. I'm having a hard time finding old China to use. Where can I find China?
What type of glue did you use?
Can't you just put the plates in newspaper and hit it with a hammer?