Mosaic Fun

Last April, my friend Terri and I had planned to go to a mosaic workshop hosted by the owner of the Cosmic Crab Resort in Bocas del Toro (where Terri, her husband Brad, and I had visited last October). Sadly, the pandemic squashed that outing. However, I saw on Facebook a couple of months ago where the owner had figured out that if people couldn’t come to her, she would (virtually) come to them – she made up kits for various mosaics, to be shipped to those who wanted them. These kits were comprehensive, and included ceramic tiles and a backplate to build it on that had color artwork to use as a guide. It also included a bottle of glue to attach the tile pieces to the backplate, grout, a tool to apply the grout, a sponge, and detailed instructions. Impressive, and an ingenious way to modify the workshop to work in the lockdown!

Terri was enthusiastic about doing this, and when I mentioned it to another friend (Barbara), she wanted in on the fun, too. So we ordered our kits and set up a work space in my living room. Fortunately, I had a spare six-foot table which was perfect for the occasion.

It took us several afternoons to complete our projects – a couple of days to finish applying the tiles, and then letting the glue dry overnight before grouting. Unfortunately, we all ran out of grout before finishing our mosaics, so I bought more here in Boquete to finish up.

I think we did a creditable job on our artwork, given that none of us had done anything like this before. We also had a good time socializing during our work sessions, which had been in short supply the past six months. So it was beneficial on several levels, and we had something to show for it, too! Here are photos of the finished mosaics…

In the days before we actually started our projects, I got a little head start on the mosaic thing – I made some banana pudding, and the cookies that went in it had gotten pretty broken up, so it fit right into the “broken tiles” theme!