Pompeii Oven in Switzerland: the Saga Continues...

[Frances]

Thank you all!

Sarah, the swirls come next. I'm looking forward to them, too . Some of the pieces are smashed plates, some of them are just small tiles, like you often see in bathrooms, but I also have a tile clipper thing to cut things to size - I'll post you a photo of it when I next get out there.

It'd be really cool if you did a mosaic on your oven, too! I'd be more than glad to give you any advice I can. Its like doing a giant jigsaw puzzle really, only you get to choose the picture yourself...



George... please don't start on the jugs again. (I'll bet this one is bigger than any of Jim's though!)

Atkins diet? Donno, low carb and WFO doesn't really go very well together, does it?

[Frances]

Some sun today and the first twirly bits...

Sometimes I wish I were all restrained and could post the finished thing after months and months of secret work and say: Tadaaa, here it is! But as it is I'm afraid you're going to get every fiddly little tiny step forward...

Oh hang on, Sarah said I have to post lots of pics! Yeah!

I'm doing this mosaic according to the system of "starting everywhere at once". The advantage is that as your mosaic skills develop or change while you're working on a large project like this (mine do anyway), you don't end up having the final bits looking different from the first ones - everything is a mix of old and new. It also doesn't matter as much if you run out of some materials half way through.

The downside is it takes a long time for any one bit to look finished.

[gjbingham]

Cool! Way cool! How about a post of your progress every two weeks or so? Dump thirty pics on us all at once and blow us away. I think your oven's goint to be a one in a million!
George

[sarah h]

Looking good! Kinda reminds me of an octopus at this point ... and makes me want to get out there and back at it with mine ...

[Frances]

Originally Posted by gjbingham

How about a post of your progress every two weeks or so? Dump thirty pics on us all at once and blow us away.

You think? Hmmm... tempting...

But no.

Well maybe next time, but not today.


So here is a pic of the mosaic tiles which arrived yesterday, one of the glas clipper thing I use for shaping them and one of what little progress I made today (besides baking pizza and bread).

Its certainly going to be a unique oven. One of those love it or hate it things - one of our neighbours and my mother-in-law both like very stark simple things and really loved it when it was just white. All I can say is, its lucky my husband doesn't share his mom's tastes...

[sarah h]

I was under the impression that blue was the theme but it looks like things are about to get a whole lot more colourful!
Those new colours are amazing - I especially like the blue & green tile in the middle - is that glass instead of ceramic?
Thanks for posting a pic of the cutters. They're quite different from what I've seen before.
I'm eager to see what comes next!

[dusty]

I knew it! Knew it, knew it, knew it!
I've suspected it for months!
This whole oven project was a secret, convoluted, sophisticated plan to create another canvas for your mosaics.
You almost had me goin' with all that pizza and bread blah, blah, but I knew it!

Well..., brilliant plan. And, I gotta say, this one is shaping up to be your masterpiece. I find that whole art form facinating. I can't wait to see what you do with the other bright colors.
I'm thinking that if there was a WFO "hall of fame", yours would be in it.

Thanks for keeping us posted. You definatly got my attention.

dusty

PS...I knew it!

[Ed_]

Wow! I'm with George, more photos! I love the colors--this is really going to be neat.

[Frances]

Oh darn! No pulling the wool over your eyes Dusty! The secret's out...


More photos? I thought George was saying less? Sorry, but I can't oblige right now because of the rain

[Frances]

Some more swirls...

A lot of these tiles are glass - because glass is frost proof. I've found frostproof tiles to be rather hard to find, and not very colourful when I do.

Oh as an aside, a good way to discover if any given shards are frostproof or not (say from a broken dinner plate or similar): Put the broken edge to your toungue (carefully...!). If it feels sticky its water absorbant and therefore not frost proof.

Some of the green here is from broken wine bottles. People keep asking to donate green bottles, but funnily enough thats one colour I have plenty of already...