Coping Stone Mosaics and Walls

As you know I have been working to mosaic the coping stones in my garden to make it more attractive.  Four of them are already complete with another still work in progress and three still to be begun.  Here I present two of these and one wall.

Step Coping Stone Right No. 3 

The first show is one that sits at the stop of the steps on the right.  This is actually a low wall I built myself over the summer.  There were no walls at the top before though there was evidence that there might have been low coping stones there at one point.  The soil level here on the right is level with the steps and could easily spill over.  I didn't plan it as a wall but it just sort of 'happened' as I was placing a barrier there to hold back the soil.  I also created a similar low wall on the other side to match, though the soil level there is much lower than the steps.  This one is still waiting to have mosaic applied.  The top step also needs raising to make it level with the others; plus the fact that the surface is heavily deteriorated.

Above: The top step as seen from the lawn. It has been dug out in the foreground to allow the step to be extended into the garden.

 

This low wall mosaic consists of a winding pattern made up of mirror tiles with blue and green glass gems filling in the gaps; there are also some clear glass gems above individual mirror tiles.  A silver-grey grout was used to complete it.  It took ages to clean off the excess grout due to me not being present and lots of bad weather.  But I'm now quite pleased with the result and cannot wait to start on more :-)

Step Coping Stone Right No. 1 

This is one of the longer coping stones which runs by the lower steps.  Apart from the side there are no tiles used on the top.  It consists of glass gems (blue and clear) and glass shapes consisting of moons, suns and shells.  Some of these have beautiful rainbows in them and really look fab in the sunlight :-)

I still have to finish the side of the coping stone and fill in a few minor pits where the grout was not present.  But these are only small things that can be done at a later date :-)

Like the coping stone opposite the design features 13 fish swimming downstream.  But this time they end at glass shell shapes (the shore?) and at the end is a sun/moon feature taking on a circular pattern.

Steps Wall Right No.1 - Peace and Happiness Mosaic

This is a mosaic I did rather quickly in September 2012.  It's quite a basic style using coloured and clear glass gems.  This mosaic can be seen very clearly from the window and the idea being that one would see this every morning; hopeful reminding oneself to include that in ones life :-)

As you can see there's still a bit of work that needs doing and the far right hand side needs grouting as well as some infilling.  I may add some of those polished pebbles to add some further interest to the area.

Peace and Happiness x

Yin Yang Step Mosaic

This is one which I actually created towards the end of the summer; however, it's only recently which I've had the chance to clean it up and photograph it properly.

For the first time I used non-glazed porcelain tiles as it was on a surface I didn't want people slipping on.  It features on one of the steps in the garden and hopefully the first of many; I am currently working on another as we speak.

The mosaic takes the theme of the sea again with its wavy blue patterns and shades.  I've actually only used two colours, but it's amazing what you can achieve when mixing shades :-)  There is a scroll-like border on either side which could also be used to represent the waves in the ocean.

The centrepiece is another attempt at Yin Yang, but this time in blue.  I'm hoping to continue the blue sea theme on other steps as well.

At the wall ends I've begun adding those flat polished stones you can get.  I've found them very good for patching up those hard to mosaic areas as well as adding an interesting infill between designs :-)